 "Nirmala, Nirmala Sitharaman")
India, the world's biggest sugar consumer, is not planning to cut import duty on the sweetener at least in the near term, Trade Minister Nirmala Sitharaman told reporters on Thursday.
Sugar prices in the local market have started rising on an expected drop in the production after back-to-back drought-ravaged cane crop in the top-producing western state of Maharashtra.
More than two dozen mills in Maharashtra have stopped crushing due to cane shortage while many more mills are likely to shut before February end, a producers' body said on Tuesday.
