New Delhi, July 14 - Vegetable oil imports by India, the world's biggest buyer after China, rose by almost a third in June after more than doubling in the previous two months.
Total imports in June rose to 780,679 tonnes from 593,730 tonnes in the same month last year. The purchases included 742,481 tonnes of edible oils, up 35 percent from a year ago, data from the Solvent Extractors' Association of India (SEA) showed on Tuesday.
Imports in the eight months of the oil year starting November rose to 5.82 million tonnes from 3.56 million tonnes in the year-ago period.
Traders had expected the rise in edible oil imports would slow to 21 percent in June from a year ago as purchases had doubled in the previous two months.
"The large scale unabated import in last few months and no action taken in union budget to impose import duty coupled with low prices will encourage larger import in coming months," said B.V Mehta, executive director of the SEA.
Indian vegetable oil traders had demanded an import tax on crude oils and an increase in the duty on refined cooking medium to check huge imports, but the federal budget on July 6 left the the tax structure unchanged.
Mehta said poor monsoon rains would hit summer-sown oilseeds and push vegetable oil purchases to around 8 million tonnes in the current year to October, sharply up from 6.3 million tonnes a year ago.