Prices of cooking oil up in Chennai
Posted on: 05/Mar/2018 4:52:31 PM
The shops sell palm oil imported from Indonesia and Malaysia in 2 types, crude, and refined palm oil.
As palm oil costs much less as compared to gingelly oil or groundnut oil, many families use palm oil for cooking.
One litre palm oil packet (weight 910 grams) was sold at Rs. 67 till recently. However, the price has gone up by Rs. 10 within a single day and now it is sold at Rs. 77 per packet. Some shops sell at Rs. 80 per packet.
Sunflower oil Goldwinner packet price has gone up from Rs. 86 to Rs. 96. The traders inform that the prices of Idhayam brand gingelly oil and groundnut oil will also be up by Rs. 10.
Deepam oil, exclusively used for lighting lamps for the pooja and the prayer, is sold at Rs. 78 per litre. The traders inform this is also to increase further.
The traders explained the usage of palm oil increased in Tamil Nadu, the sales of groundnut oil went down. Because of this, the agriculturists, disappointed at the poor sales, stopped harvesting of groundnuts.
In order to safeguard the groundnut harvesting and to ensure a good price for the agriculturists selling it, the central government has increased the import duty on imported palm oil from 30% to 44% from 1st March. The import duty for refined palm oil was increased from 40% to 54%.
With this, the price of a 15 kg tin of palm oil has gone up from Rs. 1070 to Rs. 1240. This has led to the price increase of Rs. 10 per litre of palm oil. The price of the other refined palm oil brands will also be sold at higher prices.
