A Saviour

The government has announced a number of initiatives in the past couple of months to help the sector

Decision

Increased Customs duty on sugar imports from 50% to 100% Withdrew Custom duty on exports Stock-holding limits Mill-wise export quota

Conditional financial assistance of ` 5.5 per quintal of cane crushed Minimum selling price fixed at ` 29 per kg at the mill gate (will be revised on revisions in FRP) Buffer stock of 3 MT for a year Soft loans to enhance ethanol capacity

Impact

To curb cheap imports To encourage exports To support falling prices To encourage export to support domestic prices To ease liquidity for mills, to be directly deposited in farmers' accounts To help reduce losses, improve cash flows of mills

To absorb surplus, support prices and improve cash flows of mills To help mills diversify and help ethanol blending programme of the government