The UP government has asked private sugar mills to clear the arrears of cane farmers without further delay. While the current 2019-20 cane crushing season is underway, cane arrears to the tune of Rs 2,000 crore for 2018-19 season are still pending with sugar mills in Uttar Pradesh.
While private millers account for 85 per cent of the arrears, the bulk of arrears are owed by units operated by big players like Bajaj Hindustan, Modi and Simbhaoli groups.
As per official figures, private mills owe about Rs 1,700 crore of the Rs 2,000 crore arrears and government controlled cooperative units have an outstanding of nearly Rs 300 crore. Sugarcane Development and Sugar Industries Minister Suresh Rana said that UP mills had already settled 94 per cent of cane payables for the 2018-19 crushing season.
“We will convene a meeting with the management of defaulting mills, especially Bajaj Hindustan, Modi and Simbhaoli groups and ask them to clear their dues,” he said.
Last year, the Yogi government had filed criminal cases against several defaulting mills, including those owned by Bajaj Hindustan, Modi and Wave Groups. The FIRs were lodged under section 3/7 of Essential Commodities Act (ECA), 1955 and sections 420 and 120 (B) of Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Besides, recovery certificates (RCs) were also issued against a few others, which entitled the respective district administrations to seize movable and immovable properties, including sugar stock, for auction, so that liabilities could be settled.
Rana said that cane payments of more than Rs 80,000 crore had been made by sugar mills over the past 33 months of the current regime, which was unprecedented in the state and indicated the pro-farmer stance of Yogi government.
The minister said that 21 sugar mills were producing Ethanol with ‘B’ heavy molasses and going forward, the government was aimed at integrating all sugar factories with Ethanol production capacity to insulate the sector from cyclical nature of sugar industry and provide a viable economic value chain.
In 2018-19 crushing season, a total of 119 mills, including 94 private, 24 cooperatives and a UP State Sugar Corporation unit, participated in crushing and produced 11.8 MT of sugar as compared to over 12 MT in 2017-18.
However, India’s sugar bowl UP witnessed cane area shrinkage of more than 4% to 2.68 million hectares (MH) in 2019-20 crushing season from 2.8 MH in 2018-19.