Sugar prices are likely to range between Rs 45 and Rs 50 per kg in the retail markets during the festive season as major sugarcane cultivating states, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, start the crushing season only from November 1. At a meeting of the committee of ministers in charge of co-operatives in Maharashtra, it was decided that the state would also join Uttar Pradesh in delaying the start of the crushing season. The Maharashtra government had asked the central government to provide a subsidy of Rs 500 per tonne of sugarcane crushed in the month of October on the grounds that the cane harvested early would have less sucrose content.