: Sugarcane arrears of farmers down: Paswan #FinanceIndia #StockMarketNEWS #Business PTI New Delhi Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan on   Friday said sugarcane arrears of farmers have come

@StockMarketNEWS Sun 15 Mar, 2020

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Sugarcane arrears of farmers down: Paswan #FinanceIndia #StockMarketNEWS #Business
PTI



New Delhi



Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan on   Friday said sugarcane arrears of farmers
have come down significantly to Rs 1,314 crore from peak Rs 28,222 crore for
the 2018-19 marketing year on the back of several measures taken by the Centre.



Sugar marketing year runs from October to September.



During Question Hour in Rajya Sabaha, Paswan said sugar
production was high in 2017-18 and 2018-19 marketing years which led to a sharp
decline in the domestic ex-mill prices of the sweetener.



“Low realisation from sale of sugar due to surplus sugar
stocks had adversely affected the financial health of sugar mills, resulting in
accumulation of cane arrears of farmers which peaked at Rs 23,232 crore during
sugar season 2017-18 in May 2018 and at Rs 28,222 crore during the sugar season
2018- 19 in April 2019,� Paswan said.



To boost the liquidity position of mills and enable them
clear cane price dues of farmers, he said the Centre took various remedial
measures such as providing assistance to mills to offset the cost of cane,
fixation of minimum selling price of sugar, financial assistance to maintain
buffer stocks as well as exports, and soft loans.



Paswan said the cane price arrears now are almost
“negligibleâ€? for the last two sugar marketing years.



As a result of these measures, the all-India cane price
arrears of farmers have come down to Rs 251 crore for 2017-18 based on
state-advised price (SAP) and Rs 134 crore based on the central price called
the Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP).



For 2018-19, the arrears have come down to Rs 1,314 crore
on SAP basis and Rs 931 crore on FRP basis, he said.



Paswan said some states, including Uttar Pradesh,
announced their own cane price called SAP, which is higher that the Centre’s
FRP. The minister highlighted that the Centre has taken many steps in 2019-20
as well to help sugar mills clear cane dues.



He said the Centre has created buffer stocks of 40 lakh
tonnes of sugar, costing Rs 1,674 crore to the exchequer. That apart, an
assistance of Rs 6,268 crore is being provided to help mills export 60 lakh
tonnes of sugar.



The Centre is also encouraging diversion of excess
sugarcane and sugar to produce ethanol for blending with petrol.



Paswan said the sugar production is estimated at 273 lakh
tonnes in 2019-20 as against domestic consumption of 260 lakh tonnes. In the
previous year, sugar output was 331 lakh tonnes as compared with 259 lakh
tonnes domestic demand.
The post Sugarcane arrears of farmers down: Paswan appeared first on The Navhind Times.

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