Govt releases 17.08 lakh tonne of sugar quota for Dec

The government has made available 17.08 lakh tonnes of sugar for sale in the open market through ration shops for the current month, which is about 93,000 tonnes higher than the previous month.

"This quantity of 17.08 lakh tonne is sufficient to meet the internal demand of sugar for December," an official release said.

The government will not hesitate to release additional quota of sugar if prices show an abnormal rise, it said.

Of the total allocation for December-month, 2.08 lakh tonnes of sugar will be for supply through ration shops and 15 lakh tonnes in the open market, the statement added.

Last month, the government had released 16.15 lakh tonnes of the sweetener.

The food ministry fixes the quantity of sugar to be released in the open market and ration shops every month and directs mills to sell the entire non-levy quota during the same month.

The Centre had allowed duty-free imports of raw and refined sugar from February 2009, to bridge the shortfall in the availability of the sweetener and curb rising prices. 

India has imported 6 million tonnes of sugar since last year. Sugar prices have declined by about 40 per cent since mid-January and are now at Rs 30-31 per kg in Delhi retail markets.