Jul 3 2009 6:27PM
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NEW DELHI, July 3 (Reuters) - India is considering allowing private traders to import tax-free white sugar and extending permission to let mills import raws at zero duty beyond July, a senior government official said on Friday.
"There are hosts of measures on menu and allowing private traders to import white sugar and extending raw sugar deadline are two of them," Rajpal Bhagria, chief director of the Directorate of Sugar told reporters.
India, the world's top consumer of the sweetener, had exported 5 million tonnes last year but a sharp fall in domestic output forced it to import, a key factor behind the near 50 percent rise in global sugar prices this year.
Bhagria said Indian state firms had already contracted to buy 110,000 tonnes of white sugar and this would rise to 210,000 in July, while the country's raw sugar imports so far were 1.75 million tonnes out of 2.5 million tonnes contracted.
He said the country's sugar stocks at the start of the new season on last Oct. 1 were estimated to be 3.5-4.0 million tonnes, down from 10 million tonnes a year earlier, but there was no scarcity.
"With the import of raw sugar and white sugar, we have enough stocks. There is no shortage of sugar. There was a perception of shortage but there was no shortage," he said.
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