Sugar prices may come down to Rs 13 per kg: Gidwani

Nagpur, Apr 26 (UNI) There has been a record production of 260 lakh metric tonnes of sugar in the country this year and the price of the commodity could come down to Rs 13 per kg if the government intervened and released more stocks into the domestic open market, according to Kanhaiyyalal Gidwani, President of the Committee of Consumer Protection, Market, Industry and Commerce of the Maharashtra unit of the Congress.

Mr Gidwani told mediapersons here yesterday that government must hike the release quota of sugar for the quarter April-June 2007 from 38 lakh metric tonnes to 43 lakh metric tonnes.

The government should release an additional three lakh metric tonnes in May and two lakh metric tonnes in June this year, he said.

The additional quantity would move into warehouses of private traders and would be prevented from getting damaged, Mr Gidwani said. Otherwise, a huge quantity of sugar, stacked in the open by mills, was likely to be damaged in the upcoming monsoon, forcing it to be sold at throwaway prices, he warned and added that this could also result in the prices of sugar of good quality falling drastically.

Mr Gidwani welcomed the government's decision to create a buffer stock of 20 lakh metric tonnes and announcing a subsidy for exports, but said that further intervention from the government was necessary to benefit the consumer as well as to protect the interests of sugarcane cultivators.

The stock of sugar carried over from the previous year was 45 lakh metric tonnes, Mr Gidwani said. A production of 260 lakh metric tonnes this year would increase the stock to 305 lakh metric tonnes, he added. A consumption of 190 lakh metric tonnes and export of 15 lakh metric tonnes would still leave about 100 lakh metric tonnes as carry-over stock into the next year, he pointed out.

It would be better to concentrate on the domestic market since there was no demand in the export market, he added.

UNI