Govt clears export of 5 lakh tonnes sugar under OGL

The Union government has prepared the modalities for export of
5,00,000 tonnes of sugar by mills under open general licence (OGL) in
the current crop year that began in October
Accordingly, each mill will get to export 2.5 per cent of its annual
average production during the last three years. If a mill has not been
operational for the last three years, then its annual average
production of last two years or one year will be taken into account.
If the mill does not have capacity to fulfil its export obligation,
then it can sell its export release order (permission from the
government to export a certain quantity) to any other mill or to a
private trader.

The Food and Agriculture Minister, Mr Sharad Pawar, assured that his
department would soon work out the export modalities.

The government had earlier allowed the export of about 1.5 million
tonnes of sugar through the Advance Licence Scheme (ALS) and also the
imported sugar stocks that were stuck at ports.
Under ALS, mills have to fulfill their export obligation of about one
million tonnes of the sweetener by March 2011 against the duty-free
imports during 2004-2009 period.