Govt cuts customs duty to curb inflation

Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Thursday said customs duty cut on a number of items has been advanced, including edible oils, to curb high inflation.

"We would have anyway done it on February 28... having regard to inflation we advanced it," Chidambaram said at the sidelines of a meeting to review performance of Regional Rural Banks.

The government had cut customs duty on edible oils on Wednesday by up to 12.5 per cent and froze the tariff values at the July 2006 levels.

The duty on refined bleached and deoderised palm oil, palmolein and other refined palm oils have come down to 67.5 per cent from 80 per cent.

Earlier in the week, the Centre had reduced customs duty on a host of items such as cement, raw materials and capital goods to lower the cost of manufacturing and infrastructure development.

The duty has been lowered on specified capital goods and their parts, and winding wires from 12.5 per cent or 10 per cent to 7.5 per cent. Duty on portland cements has been totally removed from 12.5 per cent at present.