The long pending demands of the trade for allowing import of sunflower seeds at reduced duty, the Union Govt announced reduction in import duty on sunflower seed from 30% earlier to 10%. Amendment to Notification No.12/2012-Customs, so as to reduce the basic Customs duty from 30% to 10% on sunflower seeds falling under tariff item 1206 00 90 (i.e. other than of seed quality) for the purposes extraction and refining of oil subject to actual user condition, for the period from April 1, 2017 to Sep 30, 2017. However, with duty reduction, importers will explore the import parity at international prices and India may look at sizeable import of the oilseed to ease the supply crunch for mills.