"The demand-supply gap for edible oil is not a fixed one. Edible oil consumption in the country is price elastic and when it is cheap the demand tends to go up," R P Sinha, secretary, sugar and edible oil department in the food ministry told PTI.

He was responding to a question on the domestic solvent extractors' demand to raise customs duty on edible oil imports in view of domestic oilseeds and edible oil prices crashing on large scale imports. Domestic edible oil industry, led by the Solvent Extractors Association of India (SEA) are demanding that duty on edible oil imports be raised to 40-50 per cent from the current 15 per cent.

"If duty on edible oil imports is not raised to that level it should be restored to the previous level of 25 per cent," SEA hadcontended in a letter to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Government had last year cut the duty by 10 per cent after prices of edible oil began to spurt on supply shortage and rise in global prices.