Incentives to sugar sector to facilitate payment of sugarcane dues
The Central Government has fixed Fair & Remunerative Price of sugarcane @ Rs. 230 per quintal for season 2015-16 at 9.5% recovery which is the bench mark price to be paid to sugarcane farmers. However, farmers in the States like U.P., Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana and Tamil Nadu are being paid at State Advised Price (SAP) which is normally higher than FRP. In order to facilitate sugar mills to clear cane price arrears, Government has taken following measures:-
- Provided Incentive for exporting raw sugar in sugar seasons 2013-14 and 2014-15.
- Fixed remunerative prices for supplies of ethanol to OMCs for blending with petrol; waived excise duty on ethanol supplies to OMCs during 2015-16 and scaled up of blending targets from 5% to 10%.
- Extended loans with interest subvention @ 10% p.a. for one year under Soft Loan Scheme 2015.
- Provided production subsidy @ Rs. 4.50 per quintal to sugar mills to offset the cost of cane.
This information was given by the Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Shri Ram Vilas Paswan in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today.
The Minister said that as on 05.03.2016, the outstanding dues of sugarcane growers against the sugar mills in Uttar Pradesh of 2015-16 and 2014-15 sugar season is as under:-
S.No. | Sugar season | Cane Price due in Rs. crore |
1. | 2015-16 | Rs. 3375.78 |
2. | 2014-15 | Rs.406.41 |
Sector-wise number of installed and operational sugar mills in Uttar Pradesh in 2015-16 is as under:-
Name of Sector | Number of mills installed | Number of mills in operation in 2015-16 |
PubliSector | 14 | 01 |
Cooperative | 28 | 23 |
Private | 116 | 92 |
Total | 158 | 116 |