Overview
- The Department of Food and Public Distribution announced Friday that bulk consumers can now hold sugar equal to 30 days of consumption instead of 15 days to help meet higher demand during the festival season.
- Any inventory held beyond the original 15-day cap must be sourced exclusively from imported sugar under the Tariff Rate Quota (TRQ) or the Advance Authorisation Scheme (AAS) and purchases from the domestic open market remain limited to 15 days.
- Bulk consumers defined as users of more than 10 metric tonnes per month must declare their stocks every Friday on the DFPD portal so the government can track inventories and curb hoarding.
- The government noted ex-mill prices have fallen nearly 25% while retail prices have eased about 10% and urged wholesalers and retailers to pass the mill-level price reductions through to consumers.
- The change builds on earlier steps to ease supply pressure including permission for 1 million tonnes of duty-free TRQ imports and allowing some AAS export-bound sugar to be sold domestically, and the DFPD said it will keep monitoring supplies and prices as the new season begins on October 1.