Sugarcane arrears of farmers have come down significantly to Rs 1,314 crore from Rs 28,222 crore for the 2018-19 marketing year. Sugar marketing year runs from October to September. In a reply to Rajya Sabha during Question Hours, Union Food and Supplies Minister Ramvilas Paswan on Friday said the cane price arrears now are almost “negligible” for the last two sugar marketing years.
“As a result of these measures, the all-India cane price arrears of farmers have come down to Rs 251 crore for 2017-18 based on state-advised price (SAP) and Rs 134 crore based on the central price called the Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP). For 2018-19, the arrears have come down to Rs 1,314 crore on SAP basis and Rs 931 crore on FRP basis, Paswan said.
“Low realisation from sale of sugar due to surplus sugar stocks had adversely affected the financial health of sugar mills, resulting in accumulation of cane arrears of farmers which peaked at Rs 23,232 crore during sugar season 2017-18 in May 2018 and at Rs 28,222 crore during the sugar season 2018- 19 in April 2019,” Paswan said.
Paswan said some states, including Uttar Pradesh, announced their own cane price called SAP, which is higher that the Centre’s FRP. The minister highlighted that the Centre has taken many steps in 2019-20 as well to help sugar mills clear cane dues.
He said the Centre has created buffer stocks of 40 lakh tonnes of sugar, costing Rs 1,674 crore to the exchequer. That apart, an assistance of Rs 6,268 crore is being provided to help mills export 60 lakh tonnes of sugar.
During the sugar season 2018- 19(October-September), the sugar production in the country was 331.20 lakh tones. The sugar production during current sugar season 2019-20 is likely to be reduced by about 18% to 273 lakh tonnes. The reduction in production of sugar is due to fall in production of sugarcane mainly in the major sugar producing states of Maharashtra and Kamataka, due to drought in some parts and healy rains and floods in some other parts ofthese states.