The government has extended sugar freight export subsidy till September 30 to bail out mills from the supply glut. | |
| India provides transport subsidy to sugar mills on exports at Rs 1,350 per tn for coastal areas, while the subsidy is Rs 100 more for non-coastal areas. The subsidy, which came into effect on July 27, 2007, expires on April 18. |
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| "The central government has decided to extend the period of eligibility up to Sep 30, 2008," said a food ministry order. |
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| Agriculture and Food Minister Sharad Pawar had recently said the deadline for sugar export incentive would be extended. |
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| India's year to September sugar output is expected to be around 26 million tonnes as against 28.4 million tonnes in the previous year. |
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| The likely output is much higher than annual domestic consumption of around 20-21 million tonnes. India is expected to export around 3 million tonnes sugar in 2007-08, higher than 1.7 million tonnes in a year ago. |
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| Since the beginning of the current sugar year in October, India has so far shipped 2.1 million tonnes of the sweetener. |
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| Of the total exports, about 1.2 million tonnes were raw sugar, while the rest were of white sugar. |
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