Several domestic and international companies are queuing to Andhra Pradesh for the upcoming Red Sandal auction. It is said that so far 274 companies visited the godowns ahead of the auction on September 19th. Out of this 274, 194 companies are from various states of the country while the remaining are from other countries. Out of the 81 foreign companies, 54 belong to China and 16 belong to Japan. Andhra Pradesh government has got permission to auction 8500 tonnes of Red Sandal but AP is only auction 4000 tonnes currently.
The red sandal logs are divided in to three grades with the least grade costing 10 Lakhs per ton. Currently, Center has permitted Red Sangal export only till October 31st. As the auction is expected to take more time, the state government has written to the Center to extend the time. Chandra Babu Naidu’s government had pinned high hopes on this auction to get as many funds as possible for the loan waiver scheme.
