The government on Tuesday scrapped export duty on raw and refined sugar to boost shipments, as the country is all set to produce record 29.5 million tonnes (MT) of the sweetener in the current 2017-18 marketing season. Export duty on sugar was 20%.

A notification issued by the Central Board of Excise and Customs said that it had decided to reduce export duty on raw sugar, white or refined sugar from 20% to nil. Earlier, the government had doubled import duty on sugar to 100% to check shipments. Sugar output is estimated to rise sharply to 29.5 MT in the 2017-18 marketing year (October-September) from 20.3 MT in the previous year.

In an interview to CNBC-TV18, M Manickam, Executive VC of Sakthi Sugars spoke at length about the sector.

Manickam said, "The export duty is off but it’s not profitable to export because international market is around Rs 20 and our cost of production is Rs 34.

He further said that the move was not going to make any difference to the domestic price unless the government is willing to give a huge subsidy.

According to him, industry will get relief only if cane prices are reduced.

(With Inputs from PTI)

First Published:Mar 21, 2018 5:45 AM IST