Crushing licences of 64 sugar mills in Maharashtra withheld over farmer dues

The farmers from the sugarcane belt have pending payments price lots of of crores for the facility consumed for irrigation from the previous two years.

The crushing licences of 64 sugar mills in Maharashtra have been withheld for the sugar season of 2021-22, as they’re but to pay the total quantity of the honest and remunerative worth (FRP) to farmers for the final crushing season, senior officers of the Maharashtra Sugar Commissionerate stated. These mills owe farmers round Rs 600 crore in cane dues, sugar commissioner Shekhar Gaikwad stated.

“These mills have said that they’ve entered into agreements with farmers and have cited this as a cause for the delay in cane funds. The Commissionerate has knowledgeable mills that they’ll search crushing licences as soon as the settlement interval with farmers is accomplished,” he stated. To this point, the Commissionerate has permitted of crushing licences for 145 sugar mills and a few 46 factories have begun crushing, senior officers stated.

Gaikwad stated the clear image about FRP funds for the brand new season will emerge solely on the finish of November when most mills will start crushing operations for the brand new season. Earlier, the Commissionerate had colour-coded sugar mills primarily based on their fee historical past. The step was taken to offer a prepared information for sugarcane farmers to determine the place to promote their sugarcane.

In the meantime, the Maharashtra State Electrical energy Distribution Firm (MSEDCL) has instructed the Sugar Commisionerate to ask the mills to deduct the facility provide dues from the sugar cane fee to be made to the farmers. The farmers from the sugarcane belt have pending payments price lots of of crores for the facility consumed for irrigation from the previous two years.

The Sugar Commissioner identified that there was no provision for the sugar commissionerate or the sugar factories to get better energy payments on behalf of the state electrical energy board. The mill house owners have requested the MSEDCL officers to offer a written consent from farmers to deduct the quantity from the cane funds.

MSEDCL has not simply requested the mills to deduct the quantity however has additionally promised 10% reward of the quantity they deduct from the sugar cane fee. Throughout a latest assembly, which was attended by managing administrators and basic managers of mills of Solapur, Pune, Kolhapur, Satara and Sangli, MSEDCL officers said that the overall unpaid dues amounted to just about Rs 10,000 crore to be recovered from 12 lakh farmers. The cumulative dues of all the state quantity to just about Rs 40,000 crore from the agriculture sector, Ankush Nale, regional director, Pune, stated.

Considerably, the state authorities has assured loans price Rs 28 crore to 2 sugar factories. The state has assured a mortgage price Rs 10 crore to the Rajgad cooperative sugar manufacturing facility in Pune district and the opposite mortgage price Rs 18 crore to the Sahakar Shiromani Vasantrao Kale sugar manufacturing facility in Pandharpur. Final 12 months, the federal government had prolonged ensures for loans price Rs 516 crore to 32 sugar factories.

The federal government stated cooperative sugar factories had been discovering it tough to get loans from cooperative banks after new NABARD tips had been enforced which required the borrower to have a optimistic web disposable useful resource.
This season, farmers in Maharashtra have cultivated cane on 12.32 lakh hectares as in comparison with 11.42 lakh hectares final 12 months. Sugar manufacturing is estimated to the touch round 112 lakh tonne of sugar. To this point, factories have crushed round 18.35 lakh tonne of sugar to supply round 13.31 lakh quintals of sugar.