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The government has decided to release 10.4 million tonnes of sugar for sale in the open market in the next six months starting from April 1, 2013 by mills across the country.
This is 0.6 million tonnes less than the 11 million tonnes of sugar released by the government for sale in open market in the preceding six months that started in October 2012.
According to an official statement, the non-levy (free-sale) sugar would be apportioned and released only among those sugar mills which have submitted online production returns at the time of release.
The statement also said that any unsold free-sale quota for the month of October to March would not be available for sale in the first half of the next financial year.
"Mills can sell the entire 10.4 million tonnes of sugar allocated for April to September as per their requirement without any restriction," a senior official said. The government has also released, 3.69 lakh tonnes of levy sugar for meeting requirements of Public Distribution System for the months of April – May 2013.
Reacting to the decision, Abinash Verma, director general of Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) said the industry welcomes the Central Government’s decision to release non levy sugar quota for the 6 month period from April to September, 2013.
"This will give flexibility to the mills to plan their cash flows. The decision not to convert any unsold non-levy quota into levy and also not have any inter-month restrictions of 6 monthly quota are important steps towards reforming the sugar sector," Verma said.
