NEW DELHI, May 21: The union ministry of food is planning to prepare a white paper on the status of various policy issues regarding the sugar sector. The ministry has been forced to take this decision owing to the lower sugar output during the current season which has severely depleted the levy sugar stocks required to feed the public distribution system (PDS).

The white paper is likely to deal with three major issues the proposal for decontrol of sugar, the proposal to remove sugar from the general PDS and put it under the ambit of the revamped PDS (RPDS) and the proposal of raising the issue price of sugar distributed through the PDS from the present level of Rs 10.50 per kg to Rs 12 per kg.

Sources in Krishi Bhawan point out that despite the recent approval from the committee of secretaries for decontrol of sugar, the political pressures have ruled out immediate steps in this direction without proper consultations at the UF steering committee .

The decline in sugar production which is estimated to close at the level of 127 lakh tonnes this year, down from the level of 140 lakh tonnes during the previous season, has also thrown the food ministry in a tizzy about the commitment to maintain supplies to the PDS with present stocks of levy sugar barely enough to last till the end of September.

Sources point out that so far as the government's responsibility to maintain supplies for the PDS are concerned, the food ministry under Chaturanan Mishra will have to take some tough decisions to make up for the bounty offered by the previous minister Devendra Prasad Yadav. Through increased per capita allowance raised to 425 grams per person per family by Yadav and increased allocation to certain states, the PDS requirement has risen from 3.3 lakh tonnes per month last year to almost 4.1 lakh tonnes per month now.

The current season saw levy sugar stocks opening at 13 lakh tonnes. Of the current season's production, the levy sugar quantity is likely to be in the region of 38 to 39 lakh tonnes after providing for new sugar mills who are exempt from levy sugar obligations. With PDS demand estimated to be in the region of 50 lakh tonnes annually now, and levy sugar stocks estimated to be in the region of 52 lakh tonnes, opening stocks on October 1, 1997, which marks the beginning of the sugar season, are estimated to be almost nil.

To restrict the ambit of sugar supplies in the PDS, the ministry has also mooted the idea of bringing sugar within the purview of the RPDS thereby automatically removing the population above the poverty line out of the PDS net.

With regard to the increase in the issue price of sugar, while the finance ministry has been pressurising the ministry of food to cut down on the Rs 700 crore subsidy on PDS sugar, political compulsions have made it difficult for the ministry to affect an increase again.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.