The government has reduced export duty of raw and refined sugar to boost shipments as the country is set to produce record 29.5 million tonnes 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 Custom said it has been 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.
India is the world’s second largest producer in sugar. The production is likely to rise sharply from 20.3 million tonnes to 29.5 million tonnes in the 2017-18.
The domestic demand is 24-25 million tonnes annually. With domestic prices falling below cost of production, sugar industry bodies Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) and National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories (NFCSF) had been demanding scrapping of export duty to liquidate surplus domestic stock.