Duty on sugar hiked

Announcing this here this evening after a Cabinet meeting, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pramod Mahajan told reporters that the Government had taken the decision to discourage sugar imports because of impressive domestic production which was estimated at 160 lakh tonnes during the current season.

The Vajpayee Government had in December last raised the import duty to 40 per cent, but it was seen that the price of imported sugar was still less than the market price of domestic sugar.

Total sugar imported during 1998-99, the minister pointed out, was to the tune of 8.58 lakh tonnes. In monetary terms, it was valued at Rs 1084.95 crore. Bulk of the sugar was imported from Pakistan, followed by Brazil, France and United Arab Emirates.

The decision to raise the ceiling on onion exports had been taken to lessen the hardship of onion-growers across the country. The government had, in December last, allowed the export of onion to the external limit of one lakh tonnes.

“Prices of onion have come down significantly because of bumper production in the states of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka,” he said, “By today’s decision, we hope they’ll get some relief.”

In a decision aimed at abolishing forced labour, the Union Cabinet also approved the ratification of International Labour Organisation (ILO) convention No 105.

Passed by the ILO way back in 1957, the convention has been ratified by 135 countries, including Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.