Centre lowers sugar stockholding limit for bulk consumers to 10 days

The central government has issued a notification reducing the sugar stockholding limit for bulk consumers from 15 days to 10 days, effective 20 February, for a period of 180 days.

This has been done to discourage bulk consumers from holding on to huge stocks for longer periods and to encourage them to import more sugar for meeting their requirements, the ministry of consumer affairs, food and public distributions said in a release.

The central government had, through a notification on 22 August 2009, imposed stockholding limit on bulk consumers stipulating that stocks of domestically produced sugar with them should not exceed 15 days of their requirement.

Sugar prices in the country have more than doubled over the past few months adding to the general spurt in the prices of essential commodities.

Prime minister Manmohan Singh yesterday convened a conference of state chief ministers in New Delhi to address the issue of rising prices of essential commodities.

Addressing the conference, the prime minister said it was not the first time the country faced such high rates of inflation in food articles.