According to COOIT, the apex body of the edible oil industry, the customs duty on oilseeds could be brought down to such a level that the landed cost of the oilseeds is not lower than the minimum support price (MSP) declared for the domestic oilseeds.

"The organisation has suggested this working formula to protect the interest of both the growers as well as the processors," COOIT executive director KML Chhabra said.

Chhabra said the decision to place sunflower and soyabean under open general licence (OGL) scheme was to improve the availability of oilseeds for processors and crushing units and to aid the increased availability of edible oils.

"That being so, retaining such a high duty on import (45 per cent), import of oilseeds has become an unviable proposition," he said.

Thegovernment had on October 15 notified import of soyabean and sunflower under OGL and raw rice bran under special import licence scheme, following long-standing demand from the processing industry.

While import of soyabean is allowed in split and cracked form, sunflower and rapeseeds import is subject to quarantine conditions.

Chhabra said government could permit the import at nil duty to start with and later move it either way depending on its impact on the domestic industry.

The food and civil supplies ministry has already asked the commerce ministry to reduce import duty on oilseeds to make shipments into the country more viable but the commerce ministry has shot down the proposal saying such a move would hurt the domestic growers.

COOIT in its recent annual convention held in Calcutta has estimated the kharif oilseeds output to be 130 lakh tonnes, marginally higher than last year's 127 lakh tonnes.

Chhabra said excessive and delayed rains had damaged the kharif crop more than the industry hadexpected and as such import of oils and oilseeds had emerged as an unavoidable proposition to meet the domestic demand.

Last year India imported edible oils in the range of 18 to 20 lakh tonnes to bridge the demand-supply gap.

Chhabra said the edible oils requirement during the current year would cross last year's level.

The domestic edible oil industry by demanding a duty cut on imports was not trying to jeopardise interests of the growers, he said adding whenever there was a crash in international oilseed prices duty should be hiked to prevent importers from taking advantage.