Reacting to the surge in wheat prices, the government today reduced the Customs duty on the commodity from 50 per cent to 5 per cent and placed it under the open general licence till the end of the year.
"It has been decided to allow import of wheat at a concessional rate of 5 per cent against a 50 per cent scheduled rate, with effect from today," an official statement said today.
The standards of quality applied to the imports will be the ones notified for public sector imports. Atul Chaturvedi, president of Adani Exports' agro division welcomed the move, saying that it, along with wheat imports by the government, would lead to a fall in prices.
However, Veena Sharma, joint secretary of Roller Flour Millers' Federation of India, said the government had proposed to reduce the duty on wheat to zero.
Sharma