Bangalore : The UPA government  which has already struck a severe blow on the common man by hiking diesel prices  and by allowing FDI in retail sector, is all set to strike another blow by planning to hike the price of sugar distributed through PDS.

Interestingly, the price of sugar supplied through PDS has been well within Rs 15 per kg all these years while the price of sugar in open market has almost doubled. But none of the governments had thought of increasing the price of Sugar through PDS.

The UPA government is now talking of  cutting down the subsidy provided to sugar and in such a case, then the price of sugar will be equivalent to almost the market price. The government has been distributing around 27 lakh tones of sugar through PDS every year.

Already, the Cabinet Affairs Committee led by PM Manmohan Singh has talked about increasing the price of sugar supplied through  PDS to Rs 25. In case the government decides to sell sugar even a Rupee  less than this amount, then it will have to bear a burden of Rs 27 crore annually.