DUTY-FREE RAW SUGAR IMPORTS EXTENDED TILL JANUARY 2011India, the worlds biggest sugar user, extended duty-free imports of the raw variety by nine months as domestic production outpaces demand for a second year.
Raw sugar can be bought duty fee until January 1, 2011, the Central Board of Excise and Customs said in a notification on its website today. The government earlier allowed imports at zero duty till April 1. White sugar can be bought without paying taxes up to March 31, a four-month extension.
India, also the second-biggest producer, became a net buyer for the first time since 2006, as output dropped for two straight years from a peak in 2006-07. The weakest rains since 1972 this year have damaged crops, including cane, worsening the deficit.
Sugar futures for March delivery climber as much as 1.5 per cent to 23.01 cents a pound on ICE Futures US in New York in after-hours trading. On September 30, the price reached 25.43 cents, the highest level since February 1981.
Sugar cane harvests in Maharashtra, Indias second biggest grower, halted after a tropical cyclone flooded fields, Prakash Naiknavare, Managing Director of the Maharashtra State Cooperative Sugar Factories Federation Ltd., a group comprising 190 mills, said today.
-Bloomberg
THE BUSINESS STANDARD
13 Nov. 2009
