In a major change in policy, the government on Wednesday removed the cap on sugar exports and placed the commodity under the open general licence category like wheat and rice. 
This decision was taken at the meeting called by prime minister to discuss farm exports with finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, commerce minister Anand Sharma and food minister K V Thomas. 
“There is no quota system now and there is no cap on sugar exports. Any company or trader can ship out any quantity of sugar irrespective of their production capacity. However, the government will review the export quantity and put a ceiling if the export breaches the comfort level,” an official said. 
According to sources, the export of 1 million tonnes of sugar announced in the last meeting of empowered group of ministers (EGoM) will now take place under OGL “Since the export of one million tonnes was not notified and no Release Order was issued, the entire tranche will be shipped out under the new scheme,” he said. 
The government has notified export of 3.5 MT sugar in five tranches since April 2011. “So far 2.7 MT have been physically exported while exports of only 8 lakh tonnes are pending. This notified export quantity, however will be exported under the old quota system only,” he said. 
“This will help the industry in expediting sugar exports and clear cane arrears which have already crossed . 10,000-crore level,” said Abinash Varma, director general, Indian Sugar Manufacturers Association (ISMA), a trade body. 
Apart form that, the government has also announced to appoint a committee under the chairmanship of Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council (PMEAC) chairman C Rangarajan to look into the distribution of additional food grains through ration shops and open market sales scheme (OMSS). 
The committee will also have a look at the incentivised exports of food grains to clear out the godowns over flowing with grains. 
The committee will have representatives of commerce, food and agriculture ministries. The food ministry has proposed an extra allocation of 8 MT for below poverty line families and an additional 6.5 MT for the above poverty line families. The ministry had also proposed to offer some incentive on exports of about 1 MT of food grains to ease the burden on the stock of the central pool. The government is likely to stock over 75 MT of food grains by June this year as against the buffer norms of 21.2 MT.