Overseas purchases expected to climb to highest levels in a decade.
According to
The Economic Times, the move reflects the government’s effort to improve domestic availability of wheat in the wake of rising prices and concerns about the 2016-17 wheat crop.
Jaitley said the Dec. 8 notification amends a March 17, 2012 order so as “to reduce the import duty on wheat from 10% to nil without an end date, with immediate effect.”
The announcement comes after India’s government in September lowered the wheat import duty to 10% from 25%, with a planned end date of February 2017.
Jaitley first imposed the duty of 10% on wheat in August 2015. The decision was made after officials from the ministries of farm, food, trade and finance met to discuss ways to curb imports at a time when domestic stocks were ample due to seven years of bumper harvests aided by government subsidies.
