Govt likely to slap 60pc sugar import duty from today

With India’s sugar production set to exceed domestic demand, the government is likely to re-impose 60 per cent import duty on sugar from tomorrow. “The duty free notification lapses on today and from April 1 it automatically reverts back to the old duty structure,” the official source said.

Import duty on sugar was abolished in early 2009 to boost domestic supply in view of production dip in the 2008-09 sugar year (October-September). Before that, the import duty on sugar was 60 per cent. The duty-free regime was valid till today.

India had imported about six million tonnes of sugar since February 2009 to meet domestic demand.

Sugar production of India, the world’s second largest producer, had fallen to 14.7 million tonnes (MT) in 2008-09 against the annual domestic demand of 22 MT.

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