The Food Ministry has decided to disperse the 56-year-old Development Council for Sugar Industry (DCSI) with an aim to abolish archaic laws and committees by saying the statutory body is no longer relevant after the decontrol and de-licensing of the sugar sector. The Council was set up under the Industries (Development and Regulation) Act to look into grant licenses to set up new sugar mills and other issues related to the sector. DCSI has normally been reconstituted on the expiry of a two-year tenure.
The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) and Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) are looking into the issue of sugar standards, there is no point continuing with the Standing Advisory Committee on Sugar Standards (SACSS) under DCSI. The Food Ministry has decided to do away with a sub-committee on sugar standards functioning under the DCSI. The Ministry has decided that another sub-committee under DCSI, the Standing Research Advisory Committee (SRAC), will be shifted under the existing ‘Sugar Development Fund Standing Committee.’ The sub-committee will be renamed as ‘Grant-in-aid for Research Projects’. This has been done to rationalize the committees to avoid confusion.
The sugar industry was de-licensed in 1998 and the need for a license to set up new sugar mills was dispensed with. In May 2013, the Government removed some more key controls in the sugar sector.