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New Delhi. Congress General Secretary Randeep Surjewala on Thursday targeted the Modi government over the huge increase in the price of sugar before the festivals and alleged that due to the government's policies, the burden of inflation is increasing on the common people. Calling it a 'sugar scam', he termed it as the new 'master stroke' of the Modi government.

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Party general secretary Randeep Surjewala told reporters that the price of sugar has increased from around Rs 45 per kg to Rs 70-75 per kg in August. He claimed that this could put an additional burden of about Rs 36,000 crore on the country's consumers in the four months of festivals.

The Congress leader termed it a 'sugar scam' and alleged that hoarders and black marketeers are benefiting from it. Taking a dig at the government's policies, he said, 'This is the new master stroke of the Modi government to openly loot the public from profiteers and black marketeers. For 12 years, Modi government has been making such master strokes and the problems of the common people are being increased through inflation. According to Surjewala, the sugar stock at the beginning of the 2025-26 season was around 50 lakh tonnes, whereas in the last season it was 80 lakh tonnes. Citing the Indian Sugar Mills Association's data of April 30, 2026, he claimed that sugar production this season was around 275 lakh tonnes, whereas the government had earlier estimated the production at 343 lakh tonnes.

Surjewala said that due to festivals between August and November, the monthly consumption of sugar increases from an average of 24 lakh tonnes to about 30 lakh tonnes. He alleged that the government decided on August 20 to import 10 lakh tonnes of raw sugar duty-free, but due to the time taken in bringing sugar from abroad and refining it, its benefits will not be available to consumers during the festive season.

The Congress General Secretary also cited ethanol policy as a reason for the increase in sugar prices. Surjewala claimed that sugarcane and its associated products were used extensively in ethanol production between November 2025 and July 2026, which affected the availability of sugar in the domestic market. The Modi government used 32 per cent of sugar cane complex in the production of E20 adulterated oil between November 2025 and July 2026. Sugarcane complex means sugar, D molasses or C molasses. The result was that the sugar available in the market went into the vehicles. That is, Modi government should loot the praise of E20 and people should suffer the consequences.

Surjewala also raised the issue of the closure of the scheme of providing sugar at subsidized rates through ration shops in 2017 and said that due to this, the facility of getting cheap sugar to crores of families was ended. Earlier, through a scheme, the Congress government used to provide 500 grams of sugar to each person every month at ₹ 13.50/kg from the ration shop to 40 crore people of the country. On this, the Congress government itself used to bear the subsidy of ₹ 18.50/kg, but the Modi government stopped this scheme in the year 2017. He said that this time when the people of the country will celebrate the festivals of Dussehra and Diwali, they will remember again and again the blow of inflation caused by the Modi government.

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