The government on Monday extended by one year the free import policy for refined bleached deodorised palm oil, and refined bleached deodorised palmolein to December 31, 2022 but retained a clause that the import is not permitted through any port in Kerala. The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) had in June, removed the import restrictions till December 31 this year.

“Free import policy of items… is extended for a period upto December 31, 2022,” DGFT said in a notification on Monday.

The announcement comes amid high inflation becoming a cause of concern and the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) ordering a year-long suspension of futures trading in soybean, soyoil, crude palm oil, wheat, paddy rice, chickpea, green gram, rapeseed and mustard. SEBI on Monday directed commodity exchanges not to launch futures contracts of these products.

Refined bleached deodorised palm oil is made from refining crude palm oil. Indonesia and Malaysia are the top producers of palm oil, and India is the largest importer of vegetable oil.

As per Solvent Extractors’ Association of India, the country’s edible oil imports remained almost flat at 131.3 lakh tonne during the 2020-21 marketing year ending October, but in value terms, they rose 63% to Rs 1.17 lakh crore.

Retail food inflation accelerated 1.87% last month from 0.85% in October. The government had cut diesel prices by Rs 10 per litre and petrol by Rs 5 a litre in the first week of November.