Before I say what Congress party general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala said on August 27 during a press conference at the party’s headquarters in New Delhi, I would first like to say what I expected. I had almost similar views, which I tweeted at 10:32 a.m.
In the meantime, Rajya Sabha MP from Rajasthan Randeep Singh Surjewala said that the Finance Minister must immediately come out with details from the last 12 years showing how many lakh crores have been lost through “haircuts” under the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT). I suspect that figure could be upwards of Rs. 10 lakh crore. I am not making a guess here; I have some information regarding the NCLT approving a repayment plan under which Zee News founder Subhash Chandra would pay Rs. 6.5 crore to settle personal debt claims amounting to about Rs. 22,006.57 crore.
However, I tweeted in the morning that the BJP-led Narendra Modi government (Government of India) must release, in the national interest, the names of businesspeople whose loans have been waived over the last 12 years.
Now, let’s come to the point and discuss what Randeep Singh Surjewala said during the press conference, which began at 1:10 p.m. Addressing a press conference today, party general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala noted that the Modi government had allowed a shortage of sugar to build up despite having advance knowledge of declining production and stocks, resulting in a sharp increase in retail prices and imposing an additional burden of around Rs. 36,000 crore on consumers during the four-month festive season.
“This is no less than a scam worth Rs 36,000 crores”, he remarked.
Surjewala said sugar prices had risen from around Rs 45 per kg to Rs 70-75 per kg in August as the festive season began, noting that profiteers and black marketeers were benefiting while ordinary consumers were being forced to pay higher prices. He said that the opening sugar stock for the 2025-26 season was 50 lakh tonnes, compared with 80 lakh tonnes in 2024-25, which is a decline of 30 lakh tonnes.
The Congress leader cited a press release issued by the Indian Sugar & Bio-energy Manufacturers Association (ISMA) on April 30, 2026, according to which sugar production during 2025-26 stood at 275 lakh tonnes.
He contrasted this with the government’s earlier projection of 343 lakh metric tonnes.
“By the end of April, the Modi government knew that a sugar shortage was looming because both production and opening stocks were substantially lower. Yet the Modi government deliberately chose to look the other way,” Surjewala said.
The Congress leader said average monthly sugar consumption in the country was around 24 lakh tonnes, but consumption rises to approximately 30 lakh tonnes a month during August-November because of the festive season.
Surjewala calculated that if sugar prices remain around Rs 75 per kg during the festive period, consumers would pay approximately Rs 30 more per kg compared with the earlier price of Rs 45.
“At an additional Rs 30 per kg, the people of India will bear an additional burden of Rs 36,000 crore on the consumption of 120 lakh tonnes of sugar in just four months,” he alleged.
He termed this a “Rs 36,000 crore sugar scam”, claiming the additional amount would effectively flow into the hands of sugar profiteers and black-marketeers.
Surjewala also questioned the Centre’s decision on August 20 to permit duty-free import of 10 lakh tonnes of raw sugar, arguing that the measure had come too late to provide meaningful relief during the festive season.
He noted that imported sugar from Brazil would take around 45 to 55 days to arrive in India and another 10-15 days would be required for processing.
“That means the sugar will become available in Indian markets only by the end of November, by which time the entire festive sugar-consumption season will be over,” he said.
Surjewala also said that the government’s ethanol-blending policy had contributed to reduced sugar availability. He stated that between November 2025 and July 2026, around 32 per cent of the “sugarcane complex” was diverted for ethanol production, including sugar, B-heavy molasses and C-heavy molasses.
“As a result, the quantity of sugar available to the general public in the market declined substantially, leading to an increase in sugar prices,” he pointed out.
Surjewala referred to concerns over the impact of E20 petrol on vehicles, saying the government was celebrating the policy while ordinary people were paying a heavy price for it. Consumers are bearing the consequences of reduced sugar availability, he added.
He further criticised the Modi government for discontinuing the subsidised sugar distribution scheme through ration shops in 2017. He said the Congress government had provided 500 grams of sugar per person per month to around 40 crore people through ration shops at a subsidised price of Rs 13.50 per kg, with the government bearing a subsidy of Rs 18.50 per kg.
“Far from providing cheap sugar through ration shops at Rs 13.50 per kg, the Modi government has raised the price of sugar itself to Rs 75 per kg,” he added.
In a sarcastic remark, while referring to higher petrol and diesel prices, he said, the government seems to be trying to reduce “obesity” and described higher LPG prices as a way to encourage people to “eat less and remain slim”, and higher cooking oil prices as a purported way to “protect people from heart attacks”.
