In order to lower down the India’s rice import, the Indian govt. has imposed a customs duty of 80% on rice. The press report stated that, the govt. has come under high pressure since nearly 60,000 tonnes of rice were imported in the past four months, at a time when the country is having a bumper crop. Indian rice production during the 1999-2000 season is likely to be 88.68 million tonnes and the present stocks of rice with the govt. are over 15 million tonnes. Reports said that the traders were importing rice from Pakistan almost entirely at an average price of $180 a tonne, and making profits of nearly $23 a tonne. The decision of imposing custom duty on rice follows the Indian government’s negotiations with its main trading partners as USA and Europe. |
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