The Hindu Business Line : 52 lt sugar available for open market sale in Q3

New Delhi, Oct. 2 The Centre has released 44 lakh tonnes (lt) of sugar to be offloaded by mills as their free sale quota (FSQ) for the current October-December quarter. This is higher than the 42 lt of FSQ allocated during the same period last year.

But apart from the normal 44 lt FSQ, there is going to be availability of an additional six lt from the now dismantled second buffer stock of 30 lt earlier sequestered from mills on Government account. Besides, there is about two lt of unsold/un-despatched stock carried over from September, which mills will have to now liquidate before October 15.

So, in all, 52 lt of sugar would be available for sale in the open market during October-December. Of this, 21 lt is for October (15 lt FSQ plus four lt dismantled buffer plus two lt carryover), 16 lt for November (15 lt FSQ plus one lt dismantled buffer) and 15 lt for December (14 lt FSQ plus one lt dismantled buffer).

The Centre had earlier also made an allocation of 2.27 lt of levy sugar (to be sold through the public distribution system), which includes a festival quota of 57,000 tonnes. The aggregate sugar availability for October, then, works out to 23.27 lt, “which is sufficient to meet the normal and festival demand for the month,” according to a Food Ministry statement released here.

In a separate move, the Ministry has also come out with a time schedule for liquidation of the 30 lt second buffer stock by mills. Originally, mills were required to offload 25 per cent of the 30 lt within two months of its dismantling, i.e. from August 1 to September 30. The remaining 75 per cent could be sold at any point of time during the new 2008-09 sugar season (October-September) without the requirement of any release order from the Directorate of Sugar.

But now, the Ministry has ruled that even out of the balance 75 per cent, 30 per cent will have to be sold during October-September, 20 per cent in January-March, 30 per cent in April-June and 20 per cent in July-September.

The Food Ministry statement has said any part of the FSQ of 44 lt and the six lt of dismantled buffer for October-December that remains unsold/un-despatched by the end of this period “shall be converted into levy sugar”. Moreover, “penal action may also be taken against the defaulting sugar factories under the Essential Commodities Act, 1955”.

It further clarified that in the case of the dismantled first buffer of 20 lt and 25 per cent of the second instalment of 30 lt, “any quantity which remained unsold/un-despatched…as at the close of September 30, 2008 stands converted into levy sugar as per the Central Government orders dated 08.09.2008”.