Import of Sugar With the Union government making sincere efforts to curb excessive sugar imports at heavily subsidised rates and providing a level playing field to indigenous sugar producers, the beleaguered Indian sugar industry hopes to recover from its present plight. For the industry, the good news began trickling in at the end of December last year when the government hiked the import duty on sugar from 27.5 to 40 percent and revised the levy-free ratio from 40:60 to 30:70 with effect from January 1 this year. During the last two years, India has imported no less than 2.14 m tonnes against an import registration of 3.41 m tonnes. Despite curbs on imports initiated by the government and putting imported sugar to the mechanism of monthly releases under sugar control order at par with indigenous sugar, imports remain unabated. Even though the authorities had subsequently issued another order in line with the court’s observation, importers were not taking it seriously and continued to sell sugar regardless of official release orders, and flow of imported sugar remained uninterrupted producing an adverse impact on indugenous sugar industry and trade. Under the prevailing situation, the government should hike the import duty further by 10 % to 50 % which is well with in the WTO compatibility. What is more, due to a free fall in international sugar prices, the present import duty of 40 % has apparently failed to produce the desired impact on unabated sugar imports to the country. |
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