Centre has woken up to the emerging tightness in the domestic availability of sugar and has permitted refiners and millers to import up to 5 lakh tonnes of raw sugar duty-free, but the measure may be inadequate to ease the strain in the coming months. The country economic outlook for 2017-18, sugar demand is expected to increase, breaking out of the sluggishness arising from recent events such as demonetisation. Given the enormity of the expected shortage, there is a felt need for the import of an additional 15-20 lakh tonnes in order to contain the risk of a price spiral and diffuse the adverse fallout of the market’s regional concentration. Spot prices are slightly higher than forward rates.