Even as the Akhilesh Yadav government in Uttar Pradesh is busy working on a new sugar investment policy for the country's largest sugarcane producing state, it has also taken up for review a 2004 policy announced by the then chief minister Mulayam Singh.

The state government has referred the case to a group of ministers (GoM) headed by agriculture minister Anand Singh for consideration and all aggrieved stakeholders have been called for a meeting on Tuesday.

The policy was scrapped by the Mayawati government immediately after coming to power in May 2007.

The 2004 policy, which had attracted investments of close to R10,000 crore in both expansion and new-capacity additions of 35 sugar factories, had provided incentives such as exemption from entry tax, trade tax on molasses, stamp duty and registration charges on purchase of land, purchase tax on cane, society commission on cane and administrative charges on molasses.

It also offered subsidy on transport of sugar and cane and a capital subsidy of 10 per cent on investment.

All these were to be given for a period of five years if a company/group invested a minimum of R350 crore and for 10 years if the investments were at least R500 crore. However, the Mayawati government, immediately after coming to power in May 2007, scrapped the policy and only a few companies could avail the benefits on the investments made.

Among those who sought to take advantage of the policy included some of the country's top players in the sugar sector, including Bajaj Hindustan, Balrampur Chini, Triveni Engineering, Birla, Dhampur Sugars, Dalmia, Dwarikesh, Mawana, DSCL, Simbhaoli, etc. While Bajaj Hindustan is the biggest beneficiery as it had set up as many as 9 sugar factories after the policy was announced, Balrampur Chini and Treveni groups set up 4 units each, Uttar group 3, Dalmia, DSCL and Dwarikesh and Rana groups 2 each and Dhampur, Simbhaoli, Birla and Mawana groups 1 each apart from some other standalone mills.