Hardening its stand against the private sugar millers the Uttar Pradesh Government asked the mills to start crushing by December 7 or get ready to face legal action. “There would be no further talks with the private mill owners as the government is convinced that the benefits given by the government to the private millers was to the tune of Rs 20 per quintal and not raising the cane price was enough for the mills to be viable,” said UP Principal Secretary Sugar Development Rahul Bhatnagar here.
The Government also rejected the private millers demand of settling the cane price as Rs 225 per quintal. Private sugar mills remained unmoved. “We can not start crushing at the price suggested by the state government. It is no longer viable,” Director General, Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) Avinash Verma said.
The state government had announced the cane price which is Rs 290 per quintal for the early variety, Rs 280 for general variety and Rs 270 for the rejected variety of sugarcane.Bhatnagar said the private sugar mills of west UP have been asked to start crushing by December 4 while mills of east UP to start operation by December 7.
“If they fail to meet the deadline legal action would be taken against the mills including issuances of Recovery Certificates (RCs) in which the pending dues along with interest would be added besides lodging FIRs against the owners,” he said.Altogether 21 sugar mills have started crushing in the state including 16 in the cooperative sector, four in the private sector and one of the public sector. The four private mills which started operation are in west UP. One of them is of Wave Industry and remaining three of IPl.
Bhatnagar also rejected the offer of the private mills to run their units and said that a fresh deadline was given as talks were underway with the mill owners. Earlier UP government had fixed November 25 for all the sugar mills in the state to start the crushing. “Government has already given a rebate of Rs 20 per quintal of cane to the sugar mills which was enough to make their unit viable, “ he said.
The rebate given to the mills this season were relaxation in levy sugar which would be around Rs 10.15 per quintal, Cane purchase rebate of Rs 2 per quintal, relaxation in molasses which would be around Rs 2.10 per quintal. Besides this the central government is giving Interest Subvention scheme in which they would get a rebate of Rs 2.40 per quintal of cane purchase and waiver of purchase tax on cane by UP would enable the mills to get a rebate of Rs 2.73 per quintal.
The official also announced that a high powered committee would be set up under the chairmanship of state Chief Secretary before the next crushing season where a permanent solution would be sorted out. The committee will also have members from the cane farmers and the private mill owners. Bhatnagar said that the government will review the sugar price and its co-products after three months to assess the financial viability of the mills.
The deadlock had ensured suspension of crushing operations by 99 private mills, which crush over 80 per cent of the total sugarcane crushed UP. The delay in crushing operations caused consternation amongst the 32 lakh sugarcane farmers family and 2 lakh sugar mill workers and in UP, which produces a third of India’s sugar output. The farmers have been agitating in western UP for early start of crushing. They have been demonstrating at mill gates to press for their demand. In some parts of the state the cane farmers are even burning their canes to lodge their protest.