New Delhi: Union Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan has said that the Central government is yet to decide on extending the subsidy on exports of raw sugar for the 2014-15 marketing year that started in October.
The Minister said, "No decision has been taken as of now to extend the export subsidy."
Status quo remains as far as the subsidy issue is concerned, he added.
The Centre had in February this year announced a subsidy for exports of raw sugar up to four million tonnes in order to help the cash-starved industry clear sugarcane arrears to farmers. The subsidy scheme ended in September this year.
The subsidy was originally fixed at Rs 3300 per tonne for February-March. The government had decided to review the quantum of subsidy every two months.
India is the world's second largest sugar producer after Brazil. Sugar production in current year has increased by 22 per cent to 5.6 lakh tonnes compared with 4.62 lakh tonnes previous year.
