Tariff Values for palm oil and brass scrap increased

By Vijay Kumar

The existing and the new rates are as follows:

S.No.	Chapter heading or sub-heading	Description of goods	Tariff value US$ (Per Metric Tonne)	New tariff values
(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)	5
1	1511 10 00	Crude Palm Oil	402	426
2	1511 90 10	RBD Palm Oil	420	436
3	1511 90 90	Others – Palm Oil	411	431
4	1511 10 00	Crude Palmolein	418	438
5	1511 90 20	RBD Palmolein	430	447
6	1511 90 90	Others – Palmolein	424	443
7	1507 10 00	Crude Soyabean Oil	508	518
8	7404 00 22	Brass Scrap (all grades)	1981	2004

What is the basis for the frequent revision (upward) of the Tariff Values? Now that there is a Right To Information, we are entitled to know. How does the Government decide about the tariff value? Since government does not normally reveal such state secrets, we set on a mission to find it out. This is what happens. The DG, Valuation based on data available on “Oil World” informs the Board the computed landed value of these goods and the Board for want of any better statistics, accepts these figures and changes the tariff values accordingly. It appears that recently the Finance Minister and Revenue Secretary had instructed the Board that tariff values should be revised as a matter of course twice every month-on the 15th and on the last day of the month, based on the average prices prevailing during the previous two weeks. It was also directed to make the scheme entirely WTO complaint and to remove all wrong perceptions among the public on the manner in which the scheme is implemented. Board seems to have taken these instructions quite seriously and the latest notification was issued on 15th October, which happened to be a Saturday. Since when did Board start working on Saturdays?

So now we can expect the notifications twice in a month and if you want to know in advance what the values are going to be, all you have to do is keep tracking http://www.oilworld.biz/app.php

NOTIFICATION. No. dated 15th October,2005