Even as the cane crushing season came to an end in May, the cane dues of farmers in the state stands at a phenomenal Rs 2300 crore despite assurances from the Central and State governments on clearing them at the earliest.
Interestingly, Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a public speech had claimed the arrears to be around Rs 700 crores while Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has said that the dues were in the vicinity of Rs 1600 crores. However, the exact arrear till Friday stands at Rs 2358.58 crores.
The main culprit/s in the entire fiasco have been the private sugar mills, who are yet to clear the farmers’ dues while state -owned mills have made payments to the farmers in full.
UP Sugar Mills Association (UPSMA) said that the private mills still owe Rs 2358.58 crore after making payments on the basis of State Advisory Price (SAP) of Rs 280 per quintal.
The private mills had paid at the rate of Rs 230 per quintal to farmers till July but were slated to pay the difference of State Advised Price (SAP) of Rs 280 per quintal after three months of closure of the mills. The 2015-16 crushing season ended in May and after three months, the due amount went up to Rs 2358.58 crore.
A senior official of the UPSMA said in lucknow that till date 86.90 per cent of the arraers have been paid. “Due to rise in sugar price and improvement in collection of revenue through sale of ethanol, the mills have been able to clear backlog,” he said.
During this 2015-16 sugar crushing season, the lone mill of Sugar Corporation paid Rs 91.64 crore while 24 co-operative sector mills paid Rs 1811.97 crores.
The private mills, numbering 92, have paid Rs 13740.94 crore against their total due of Rs 16099.52 crore and as such the outstanding arrears stand at Rs 2358.58 crore which is 85.35 per cent of the total dues.
The biggest defaulter in private sector is the Bajaj group which has a total due of Rs 415.86 crore followed by Mawana group which has to pay Rs 374.94 crore, Modi group still owes Rs 374.67 crore of the farmers. The Sambhaoli group also needs to pay Rs 315.92 crore and the Rana group owes Rs 224.68 crore.
The 92 private mills crushed 5775.12 lakh quintal of sugar cane to produce 621.72 lakh quintals of sugar while 24 co-operative mills crushed 648.80 lakh quintal of cane to produce 60.71 lakh quintal of sugar in UP. The lone Corporation-run mill crushed 32.73 lakh quintal of sugarcane to produce 3.10 lakh quintals of sugar.