Govt May Soon Announce Steps To Clear Cane Dues Of Rs 20k Cr

Paswan had called two separate meetings earlier this month of farmers and chief ministers to resolve the cane arrears crisis. He had said that he would brief about the suggestions made by farmers and CMs to the PM for taking policy decisions.

Sugar industry is facing difficulty in paying cane price to farmers as mills have been incurring losses for the last few years due to low realisation and high cost of production.

Maximum cane arrears belongs to sugar mills situated in Uttar Pradesh, where not only cane growers, but wheat farmers have also been affected because of recent untimely rains.

Since quality of wheat has been affected due to rains, the government has relaxed procurement norms in some states including Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and Madhya Pradesh.

Despite relaxed norms, farmers are still facing problems in selling their produce to state-run FCI and other agencies because of wheat grain got damaged beyond permissible limit.

Sugar industry body ISMA has been demanding that the government give exports subsidy on white sweetener, create buffer stock of 2 million tonnes and also restructure millers' debt over Rs 36,000 crore to tide over the payment crisis.

Ex-mill prices of sugar have fallen to Rs 21-24/kg in the country, while the cost of production is over Rs 30/kg.

Sugar production in India, the world's second largest producer, is estimated to be higher than domestic consumption for the fifth year in a row this season.
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