India on Friday revised base import prices of palm and soyabean oils, a move which traders said was in tune with global rates and unlikely to impact domestic edible oil prices as the market had anticipated it.
The price of crude palm oil has been raised to $428 a tonne from $424, while that of crude soyabean oil has been cut to $529 a tonne from $542, according to a government statement.
India, the world's leading edible oils importer, buys palm oils from Malaysia and Indonesia, and soyaoil from Argentina and Brazil.
It fixes base prices to calculate customs duties and prevent any loss of revenue due to under-invoicing by importers. Traders pay duties on the base value irrespective of the prices paid for the oil.
The government raised the price of RBD palm oil to $443 a tonne from $439, and other palm oils to $434 a tonne from $432. Crude palmolein prices were set at $450 a tonne against the previous $446, while RBD palmolein was fixed at $453 a tonne, up from $449 a tonne.
Other palmolein import prices were set at $452 a tonne from $448 a tonne earlier.
"The market was expecting these price changes which are in line with the global prices of the oils," said one trade official.
India is the world's fourth-largest vegetable oil producer, but imports 40 percent of the 11 million tonnes consumed annually in the nation of more than a billion people.
The country's edible oil imports are likely to decline to about 4.8 million tonnes in the year to September 2006 from about 5 million a year earlier because of higher domestic oilseeds output, traders said.
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