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NEW DELHI, Jan. 24

THE Government has decided that imports of crude sunflower seeds and safflower oil and refined rapeseed, mustard and colza oil under the Tariff Rate Quota (TRQ) regime would be exclusively routed through the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (NAFED) and State Trading Corporation (STC).

The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has issued a Public Notice detailing the procedure for availing TRQ for imports of these oils, apart from maize and milk powder. In the case of `crude sunflower seed or safflower oil or fractions thereof' and `refined rape, colza or mustard oil, other', the DGFT said the entities eligible to avail the quota would be allowed to undertake imports ``only on behalf of actual users''.

For milk powder, the entities eligible to avail of the TRQ are NDDB, STC, NAFED, National Cooperative Dairy Federation of India (NCDFI), Minerals and Metals Trading Corporation (MMTC) and Projects & Equipment Corporation of India Ltd (PEC). The eligible entities can import only on behalf of actual users. In addition, dairies and confectionary manufacturers are also eligible for allocation of quota, with their imports subject to the actual user condition.

For maize or corn, the eligible agencies for allocation of quota are Nafed, STC, MMTC, PEC and individual State Cooperative Marketing Federations, who would all have to import only on behalf of actual users. Additionally, cattle feed, poultry feed and starch manufacturers have also been permitted to avail of the quota, with their imports subject to the actual-user condition.

Further, since maize is imports are under the State Trading Regime (STR), the quota allottees shall also be granted an import licence for the allotted quantities, if they do not wish to make the imports through FCI. All eligible entities desiring to avail TRQ would have to send in applications to the Exim Facilitation Committee (EFC) in DGFT, with the last date being February 11. Further, the imports would have to be completed before March 31, 2002, i.e the customs authorities must clear the consignments prior to this date. The entities failing to import within the stipulated period will become ineligible for allocation of any quota for any item for the next two years, DGFT has said, while adding that the quota allocation among the applicants will be made by EFC.

The TRQ regime is a trading mechanism that provides for the application of a customs duty at a certain rate to imports of a particular good up to a specified quantity (the `in-quota' quantity) and at a different rate to imports of the same good beyond the specified quantity.

For refined rapeseed, mustard and colza oil, the customs duty on imports of an aggregate quantity up to 1.50 lakh tonnes in a financial year has been set at 45 per cent, with imports beyond this level chargeable to 85 per cent. For crude sunflower seed or safflower oil, the duties are 50 per cent for up to imports of 1.50 lakh tonnes in a financial year and 75 per cent for imports beyond this level.

In the case of maize and milk powder, the in-quota duties are 15 per cent each for imported quantities of 3.5 lakh tonnes and 10,000 tonnes, respectively, with imports beyond these attracting 50 per cent and 60 per cent duty respectively.

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