The government will provide Rs 1540 crore financial assistance package to the sugarcane farmers who will get Rs 5.50 per quintal of sugarcane supplied to the mills, said a press statement by the Food Ministry on Wednesday. It said the assistance will directly benefit a large number of farmers and help the sugar mills in discharging their liabilities on account of cane price dues of farmers.
The decision is expected to help the industry reduce its cost and farmers get their dues that have touched Rs 20,000 crore.
The Food ministry had last week cleared the proposal to giving assistance of Rs 5.50 per quintal of cane crushed.
On Wednesday it said it will be provided on basis of actual cane crushed or inter se allocation of earlier estimated 2,800 lakh tonne of cane to be crushed in 2017-18 sugar season, whichever is lower.
Further it has set the eligibility criteria for mills to get the said assistance. It said that the mills having ethanol production capacity and who have signed contracts with Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) for supply of ethanol, should have supplied at least 80% of indented quantity of ethanol under ethanol blended with petrol programme (EBP) to OMCs during 2017-18 ethanol season (December, 2017 – November, 2018).
The Centre will directly transfer the subsidy to farmers on behalf of mills and be adjusted against the cane price payable due to the farmers against Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) including arrears relating to previous years, leaving the mills to pay only remaining of cane price.