The scheme, announced by the Centre in February, allows the mills to avail of loans at 7-10 per cent interest rate for a year. It is meant to help sugar mills clear their dues to cane growers, which have run into thousands of crores.

 

The Rs 2,500-crore soft loan scheme for sugar mills, aimed to help them clear their dues, has failed to find too many takers due to some basic hurdles in the process. While 110 mills in the state are eligible for the soft loan, any actual disbursal of money is yet to take place.

 

The scheme, announced by the Centre in February, allows the mills to avail of loans at 7-10 per cent interest rate for a year. It is meant to help sugar mills clear their dues to cane growers, which have run into thousands of crores.

 

By the end of March 2019, mills in the state owed cane growers Rs 4,600 crore, due to the low price of sugar and lack of liquidity with the mills.

 

According to officials of the sugar commissionerate, the Maharashtra State Cooperative (MSC) Bank, the apex cooperative bank in the state, was in no position to extend further credit to the mills as it had already extended several ‘pledge loans’ to the sector.