No proposal to completely decontrol sugar sector: Govt

The government said there was no proposal for total decontrolling the sugar sector. "No, madam," Food Minister K V Thomas said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha to a query on whether the Centre has any proposal for freeing the sugar industry completely.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in September, 2010, had already made it clear that the issue of sugar decontrol would hinge on the approval of the state governments.

Last year, the government had started working on a proposal to decontrol the sugar sector taking confidence from the bullish sugar production forecast for the current year.

"We have discussed (the issue of sugar decontrol) with states. Unfortunately, many states like Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Karnataka are not ready," Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar had said last month after he shed his food portfolio.

The food ministry had then proposed doing away with controls like monthly sugar quota that mills can sell in the open market and through ration shops.

"If only three-four states accept, it is difficult to implement. And Prime Minister had always told that for this kind of policy, states should be taken into the confidence," Pawar had pointed out.

Asked if the government will put the proposal of decontrolling the sector on the backburner, Pawar had said, "You can't say for now. If there is more production and prices come down, they (states) may rethink and accept (it) also".

In August 2010, Pawar had said that the time had come to decontrol the sector, as sugar production in 2010-11 season was expected to be higher than the annual domestic demand and prices had softened from nearly Rs 50 a kg in January 2010.

source: indianexpress