Maharashtra has begun issuing online crushing licences for sugar mills. The first lot of 51 licences were handed over on Tuesday by Maharashtra minister for cooperation Subhash Deshmukh in Pune. Crushing licence is a prerequisite for commencing operations. Mills, which commence their operations without licence, are slapped with heavy fines. Until now, mills had to submit documents physically to the office of the sugar commissioner to get licences but the system has now been made online. Sambhaji Kadu Patil, Maharashtra sugar commissioner, told FE that the commissionerate has received around 193 applications from millers. Of these, 100 applications are from cooperative mills and the rest are from the private sector. Licences have been cleared for 51 mills and the rest should be cleared by October 28, he said.
Maharashra’s sugar season is slated to commence from November 1. According to Patil, at least 180 mills are likely to crush cane this season. In the 2017-18 season, a little over 9 lakh hectares in Maharashtra has come under sugarcane cultivation, according to estimates of the state’s agriculture commissionerate and the Maharashtra State Co-operative Sugar Factories Federation. In the 2016-17 season, sugarcane was grown over a substantially low-acreage of around 6.3 lakh hectares, around 37% less than Maharashtra’s average sugarcane cultivation acreage of 10 lakh hectares. This season, Maharashtra estimates a sugarcane yield of 722 lakh tonne and sugar production of 73.4 lakh tonne. The 2016-17 season saw Maharashtra produce one of its lowest sugar yields – around 50 lakh tonne.