The Government has directed sugar mills to comply with BIS standards regarding the packaging material of jute and HDPE bags for sugar packaging.
Department of Food and Public Distribution (DFPD) in a letter issued to sugar mills on January 08, 2024 said, “It has come to notice that some sugar mills are not using the packaging materials i.e. Jute bags as well as HDPE bags, for packing of sugar, as per the BIS standards which is in contravention of the provisions of Jute Bags (Quality Control) Order, 2022 and High Density Polyethylene and Polypropylene woven sacks for packaging or filling (quality control) Order, 2020. Apart from the that, it has also been observed that some sugar mills placed the orders for procurement of non- BIS standardized bags for packing of sugar for the current sugar season 2023-24 which is also in violation of the orders.”
“All the sugar mills are hereby directed to use Jute bags and HDPE bags for packing of sugar, conforming the BIS standards only failing which strict action will be taken under the prevailing law,” the letter further added.
In earlier order, DFPD directed sugar mills to comply the directions issued by this Directorate for mandatory jute packaging of 20% of the total production of sugar and furnish the information thereof to this Directorate through email at sostat.dsvo@gov.in and sugarcontrol-fpd@gov.in. Non-receipt of the information will be viewed seriously and will attract penalty in the form of deduction of monthly domestic release quota of sugar. It had also ask them to fill out information related to jute packaging in the P-II form on the NSWS portal by January 10, 2024.
