Centre imposes stockholding limit of sugar to rein in price surge

The Indian Centre has taken decisive action to curb the soaring sugar prices, which have surged by around 15 percent in just one month. The government has imposed a strict limit on stockholding of sugar for bulk consumers, including confectioners, soft drink manufacturers, food processing companies, sweetmeat sellers and other institutional buyers consuming at least ten metric tonnes of sugar as their average monthly consumption over the past year.

This restriction prohibits bulk consumers from keeping sugar in stock for more than 15 days, depending on their consumption or usage.

In a complementary move, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry lifted the duty-free import limit of raw sugar to 10 lakh metric tonnes until the end of October, 2026. This allows for a one-time conversion of existing Advance Authorisations under the Scheme of Import of Non-Organelles (SION E-52) to the Tariff Rate Quota (TRQ) Scheme, based on the actual quantity of raw sugar imported up to the date of this notification, subject to certain conditions.

The government's swift response comes as sugar retailers are witnessing prices reach up to Rs 5,152.44 per quintal, marking a 15.12 percent increase compared to the previous month, and a 19.68 percent rise compared to the same period last year.