Ram Vilas Paswan, food and public distribution minister, Government of India, stated that the government was eyeing the export of 50 lakh tonne sugar this year. It was 20 lakh tonne during the last fiscal.
Paswan, speaking to the media on the sidelines of Globoil in Mumbai, said, “To boost liquidity in the sugar sector and to ensure remuneration to the farmers, this year we have increased our target for the sugar export to 50 lakh tonne.” He added that for buffer stocks, the target has been set at 30 lakh tonne for this year.
He told that the decision was taken by the government as sugar prices crashed due to higher production this year. Moreover, the government has decided to increase custom duty on import of sugar from 50 to 100 per cent, while it has withdrawn the custom duty on the export of sugar.
The minister stated that the government had done this keeping in view the farmers and consumers, while rejecting the allegation that the decision was taken under pressure from the companies. He added that this was the best possible incentive given by the government under the current situation.
He, however, added that the Rs 4,000 crore incentive for export will be disbursed to only those companies who will actually export the sugar.
Meanwhile, on question of doubling the edible oil production by 2022, a vision adopted by the agriculture ministry, Paswan said, “Like, in sugar, we were able to get up to 12 per cent recovery rate from eight per cent, we are trying to bringing in new technology in the edible oil sector. It has been a policy decision by the agri ministry, and I hope we would be able to do it.”
