Govt amends sugar control order

The secretary, however, clarified that the government had no intention to implement the amended order to restrict sale of imported sugar right now. The notification amending the order was issued on June 14.

However, Sinha admitted that the government does not have the machinery to check the sales or stocks of imported sugar. Asked whether the government wouldalso bring importers under the levy of sugar obligation, he said quot;the amendment is the first step in bringing a level-playing field. Let us go step by step.quot;

Sinha said the government would decide when to issue the order implementing the amendement. quot;We will use our judgement and decide when to fire,quot; he said, adding that he did not foresee issuing the order in the near future. Despite increasing sugar import duty last year, the imports were continuing unabated with about 2.88 lakh tonnes coming into the country in the first two and a half months of the current fiscal.

The secretary said sugar import from Pakistan has almost dried up to about 3,977 tonnes in may compared to 45,566 tonnes in March 1999. He said government had no plans to increase import duty on sugar, which is at 27.5 per cent, excluding a countervailing duty of Rs 850 per tonne.

This year the country had a bumper sugar production at over 150 lakh tonnes compared to projected domestic demand of 146 lakh tonnes.