NEW DELHI: The sugar industry is set to get fresh succour from the Centre in a bid to rescue it from the financial mess it finds itself in and to protect the interest of cane growers. Following the issues raised by farmers' representatives and even state governments, food minister Ram Vilas Paswan on Thursday said that they would place them before the Prime Minister for a final decision. 

Interestingly, in the past two days farmers and state ministers have raised demands similar to that of sugar millers. They have urged the Centre to create about 30 lakh tonne of buffer stock for sugar, incentivize export of white sugar, advance some sort of subsidy or relief to produce more ethanol from B grade heavy molasses and to bring back the levy regime or some check on the unlimited release of sugar from mills to open market. 

"There is a common concern about the crashing sugar prices that has become completely unviable for the industry, even to pay the cane arrears in states including Maharashtra, which so far had a good track record. But taking any decision or measure to recover sugar price would be very tough," said a government source. 

During the last cane year, 2013-14, the central government had provided export incentives for raw sugar and interest-free totaling over Rs 7,000 crore to millers. 

Paswan said when some state ministers demanded the Centre create buffer stock, his ministry in turn asked them why their governments were not doing so to help the millers. Sources said creation of a significant buffer stock would mean an expenditure of Rs 10,000 crore immediately. 

Sources said that some of the state governments also raised the need of providing some sort of financial assistance to push the production of ethanol and to market them. A central minister had told TOI on Wednesday that this seems to be the most viable option left to bring the industry back on track and to enable millers to pay the arrears.