It is reported by S&P Global Platts.

The Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) of Sri Lanka fixed the maximum retail price for white sugar at Rupee 100/kg on October 12, which is equivalent to $578,54/t, for non-packaged and Rupee 105/kg for packaged. The maximum retail price for wholesale sugar was fixed at Rupee 92/kg.

The Sri Lankan government scrapped the special commodity levy of Sri Lankan Rupee 31/kg on sugar imports and brought it under the normal tax purview, increasing the import duty on sugar to Rupee 44,5/kg effective from October 18.

The Sri Lankan Rupee is down 12.66 % year to date at Rupee 172,6849 against the dollar on Wednesday.

The rally in sugar prices since the maximum domestic retail price was announced and the duty hike has increased the import cost to Rupee 103-107/kg, making it unfeasible to continue imports, market sources said.

Sri Lanka has an estimated demand of 790,000 tonnes of white sugar for the 2018-19 (October-September) season, with a domestic production of 55,000 tonnes and expected imports of 565,000 tonnes, S&P Global Platts Analytics data showed.