The apex body of the sugar industry, the Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA), today demanded to increase import duty on sugar and provide assistance for exports to bail out the sector that suffered losses in 2012-13 season.

Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) Director-General Abinash Verma called for immediate increase in import duty from the current 15% to at least 40% on both white and raw sugar.

He said that sugar mills were sitting on a huge opening stock of about 90 lakh tonnes and the government should 'assist the sugar industry in exporting 30-40 lakh tonnes in the next 8-10 months'. However, continued imports were happening due to low import duties despite the surplus. Another problem that the industry was facing was high sugarcane prices influenced by respective states, he said.

Sugar production of India, the world's second largest producer and biggest consumer, is estimated at 250 lakh tonnes in the 2013-14 season (October-September) as against 251 lakh tonnes in the previous year. This would be the fourth successive season when sugar production is higher than domestic demand.