The Centre on Wednesday (July 7) asked the edible oil manufacturing and marketing companies to immediately reduce the maximum retail price (MRP) of imported cooking oils-palm, sunflower and soyabean by up to Rs. 10-12 per litre.

The companies were told that the change in prices should start reflecting within a week considering the recent reduction in international prices due to their increased availability.

Nearly 60% of edible oil demand has been met by India and hence the fluctuation in international prices has direct bearing on the domestic market. Officials said the representatives of all major companies have agreed to reduce prices and comply with the Centre’s advice in the next one week.

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The reduction in prices will bring some additional relied to consumers. In the past one month, there has been a marginal decline in the prices of all major edible oils, except for groundnut and vanaspati.

"The prices have dropped also because of the measures that the government has taken in the past few months. They can't be allowed to keep selling at earlier rates when the international prices have fallen," said a source who attended the meeting chaired by Union food secretary Sudhanshu Pandey as reported by Times of India.

The government, in the meeting, cited how global prices have declined in the past one week. It also asked them to ensure uniformity of MRP for the same brand of oil across the country. Currently, the difference in MRPs of the same brand of oil in different regions is around Rs 3-5 per litre.

The ministry also raised the issue of rising consumer complaints against edible oil brands with regard to the unfair trade practices. News agency PTI quoted Pandey stating that some companies are have packaging that claims that edible oil is packed at 15 degrees celsius.