UPA Government is ready to Import Sugar

Upset due to increasing prices of sugar, Mr. Pranab-Mukherjee, Finance Minister declared that the government is ready to import raw sugar to undertake the scarceness.

Mr. Mukherjee seemed quite touched with the aspects of a full blown drought. A day after raising the red flag of a 20% fall in food grain output, he states that if needed, the government will import raw sugar to manage an impending deficit and keep prices in control.

Near about 252 of the 600 districts in India are staggering under a drought, the approaching festival season appears to be a wash off. The lower sugar stock and edible oil position is giving sleepless night to the government as consumption zooms during the festival season for these goods. Sugar stock will soon fall to 2.7 million tonne from the earlier stockpile of 10 million tonne. To avoid scarceness, the government has imposed stock limits for mass users, wholesale traders and retailers.

In order to maintain the prices of sugar steady, government is also asking mills to increase its supply to government stockpiles from 10% of mills production for the sugar season of the year FY10. The degree of the damage of the drought on the economic growth is still to be figured.

Even as government claims that the food stock situation is under control, UPA government, which confronts polls in central States, is a bit suspicious. The ruling coalition fears losing bulk support over increasing food and sugar costs and its affect on the nascent signs of recovery.