New Delhi, Jan 20 - India may tax crude palm oil imports and relax export rules for wheat and basmati rice, the farm minister said, as tumbling prices and bumper crops allow it to unwind measures imposed last year to smoothen domestic supply.
"Weather conditions are very good. If the same weather conditions continue, production of wheat, oilseeds and lentils will be higher than previous crops," Sharad Pawar told reporters on Tuesday.
The government had fixed a minimum export price for basmati rice, banned shipments of wheat and removed the import tax on edible oils as the ruling coalition struggled to rein in inflation a year ahead of general elections.
India's inflation rate, which had soared to nearly 13 percent in early August, has fallen to an annual 5.2 percent, which the deputy chairman of the Planning Commission said on Tuesday was normal and reasonable.
"Prices of soybean, groundnut and overall oilseeds have gone down substantially. We will have to protect farmers and we may impose duty on crude palm oil," Pawar said.
Adequate stocks of grains with government agencies and expectations of bumper crops have encouraged India to allow limited exports of non-basmati rice, and more recently wheat, after requests through diplomatic channels.
"We have decided to allow export of wheat to some countries at diplomatic levels. There is request by government agencies like MMTC and some private traders to allow wheat exports. We will take it up later today," he said.
"We will also discuss lowering minimum export price and abolishing export duty on basmati," he said.
Pawar also said India's sugar output in the current year to September was likely to be about 18 tonnes, in line with an estimate from the Indian Sugar Mills' Association for output below 19 million tonnes.
Pawar said states which were major growers of sugarcane had reported lower yields.
"Sucrose content in sugarcane has gone down in states like Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka. Recovery (yield) is going down and I believe sugar production will be 18 million tonnes. Therefore, we are planning imports of raw sugar," Pawar said.