Sugar industry seeks hike in import duty and export sops

The sugar industry on Thursday urged the government to increase import duty on sugar and provide assistance for exports to bail out the sector that suffered losses in 2012-13 season.

“The government should increase import duty from current 15 per cent to at least 40 per cent on both white and raw sugar," Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) Director General Abinash Verma said.

ISMA, the apex body for sugar industry, said that sugar mills have a huge opening stock of about 90 lakh tonnes and the government should "assist the industry in exporting 30-40 lakh tonnes in the next 8-10 months”.

ISMA also said the Centre should impress upon the states to immediately accept and implement the Rangarajan Committee recommendations linking sugarcane price to the sugar price and byproducts price realisation.
Dues from the sugar industry to farmers stood at Rs 4,000 crore and industry is not in a position to clear it due to losses suffered by factories, he said.
 
Revised estimates

 ISMA has estimated that sugar production during October 2013 to September 2014 (crop year) would be 250 lakh tonnes, after factoring in key industry parameters like cane yield, high rainfall and expected factory operations.

This is higher than the industry body’s July 2013 preliminary estimate of 237 lakh tonnes and marginally above the 243 million tonnes projected for crop year 2012-13.
The latest estimates were released on Thursday.

Karnataka's production is estimated to be 34 lakh tonnes, while Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh would account for 78 tonnes and 77 tonnes respectively. Tamil Nadu is likely to see decline of 15 per cent to 16.4 lakh tonnes.

The estimates will be revised again in January next year, ISMA said.