The government has fixed a lower sugar sale quota of 3 million metric tonne for the July-September quarter as against 4.4 million tonne during the previous quarter, an official statement said on Tuesday.

The government fixed a sugar sale quota of 1.2 million tonne for July, while the quota for the months of August and September will be 1.8 million tonne respectively.

In addition to this, the government has also decided to dismantle the additional buffer stocks of 3 million tonne created with mills for a period of one-year starting from August 2007. Mills will now be able to liquidate the 3 million tonne buffer stock from August 1, 2008.

?The sugar factories are allowed to sell 25% stock kept as buffer out of the 3 million tonne in the domestic market in two months of its dismantling, that is, from August 1, to September 30, and the remaining 75% at any point of time during 2008-09 sugar season commencing from October 1, 2008 without the requirement of release orders from the directorate of sugar for either quantity,? the statement added.

The government has already allowed sugar mills to sell 2 million tonne held in the first buffer stock at any point of time during 2007-08 sugar season from May 1 upto September 30 without the requirement of release orders from the directorate of sugar for that quantity.

?With these decisions, it is estimated that the total availability of non-levy sugar for sale in the domestic market during July-September 2008 would be around 4.8 million tonne,? the statement added. The total availability of sugar in April-June quarter was around 4.4 million tonnes.

The statement further added that a quantity of 194,000 tonne has been released under levy sugar for distribution in the public distribution system for the month of July, 2008.

?Thus, the total sugar released in the month of July 2008, which includes both levy and non-levy sugar, would be sufficient to meet the internal demand for sugar for this month,? the statement added.

In India, the federal government fixes the quantum of sugar that each mill can sell every month and also during a quarter.