India Imposes 20% Export Tax on Rice, Restricts Trade of Broken Rice
India imposed a 20% export duty on rice (other than parboiled and basmati) in a bid to create more domestic availability, the Indian Ministry of Finance announced Sept. 8. The levy will hit unmilled and husked brown rice along with semi-milled and wholly milled rice. With India accounting for 40% of the global rice trade, the move will further strain countries struggling with food inflation and a growing hunger problem, Bloomberg reported. Rice is the third major agricultural commodity hit with trading restrictions in India this year, with wheat and sugar shipments also curbed. The variety of rice hit with the export tax is around 60% of India's non-basmati rice shipments, B.V. Krishna Rao, president of the Rice Exporters Association, said. The move will benefit suppliers from other countries including Thailand, Vietnam and Pakistan.
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India's Directorate General of Foreign Trade in a Sept. 8 notice changed the export policy for broken rice under Harmonized System code 1006 40 00 from "Free" to "Prohibited." The change will run Sept. 9-15 and allow the export of broken rice only under the following conditions: 1) where loading of the broken rice on the ship has started before the notification was issued, 2) where the shipping bill is filed and vessel have already berthed or arrived and anchored in Indian ports and their rotation number has been allocated before the issuance of the notification, and 3) where broken rice consignment was handed over to Indian Customs before the notification was issued and is registered in customs' system.