Sugar industry seeks excise duty deferral to stay afloat

The beleaguered sugar industry, struggling to come to terms with low realisation and surplus production, has sought deferral of excise duty for a period of two years in a bid to extricate itself from the financial mess it finds itself in. A memorandum seeking such a relief has been submitted by the Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) to the food ministry a few days back. Confirming the development, ISMA secretary-general SL Jain said that the industry is facing an unprecedented situation with sugar prices declining steeply.