New Delhi: Sugar mills are yet to clear pending dues worth Rs 2,400 crore of the last two sugar seasons to cane growers, a senior Food Ministry official said on Tuesday. Depressed sugar prices due to surplus sugar production in two consecutive sugar seasons -- 2017-18 and 2018-19 -- adversely affected the liquidity of sugar mills resulting in accumulation of cane price arrears of farmers. Till last month, mills have cleared about Rs 84,700 crore dues of the 2018-19 sugar season (October-September) and Rs 84,900 crore arrear of 2017-18, the official said.
Still, about 2,300 crore was pending for clearance for the 2018-19 sugar season and Rs 100 crore for the 2017-18 season, he said adding that payment of cane price by the sugar mills to sugarcane growing farmers is a continuous process. Total dues that mills were to pay till February 2020, was Rs 87,000 crore for 2018-19 and Rs 85,000 crore for 2017-18 sugar season, the official added. So far, about Rs 1,574 crore has been disbursed to sugar mills under various assistance schemes, the official said. Under the Sugarcane (Control) Order 1966, sugar mills are required to make cane price payment to farmers within 14 days of supply of cane. If the mills fail to make the payment, then they have to pay interest at the rate of 15 per cent per annum on amount due for the delayed period beyond 14 days. The state governments have powers to enforce the order with regard to payment of cane dues of farmers. The central government from time to time issues advisory to the state governments for ensuring clearance of cane price arrears of farmers and to take action against defaulting mills.
ISMA Revises India's sugar output upward by 2% to 26.5 million tonnes for 2019-20
Industry body ISMA on Tuesday revised the country's sugar production upward by two per cent to 26.5 million tonnes for the ongoing 2019-20 marketing year, much lower than last year but enough to meet the local demand. It may be noted that a senior Food Ministry official on February 24 had said the total sugar output would be around 27 million tonnes this year.
Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) had in November last year pegged sugar production at 26 million tonnes for the 2019-20 marketing year (October to September) considering fall in sugarcane crop in key growing states, compared with 33.16 million tonnes during the 2018-19 marketing year.
Already, about 17 million tonnes of sugar has been manufactured by mills till February 15.
Annual sugar consumption in India, the world's second largest producer after Brazil, is about 26 million tonnes. Releasing the latest data, ISMA said: "Sugar production during 2019-20 would be slightly more than what was estimated in November 2019. ISMA has accordingly revised its sugar production estimates upwards from 26 million tonnes to 26.5 million tonnes for 2019-20.
The production estimate has been revised after considering reduction of sugar following higher production of ethanol by way of diversion of B-heavy molasses and sugarcane juice, it said in a statement.
According to the second estimate, production in Uttar Pradesh, the country's largest sugar-producing state, is estimated to be 11.8 million tonnes this year, almost similar to what the state had produced in 2018-19.
However, in Maharashtra, sugar production is estimated to drop by almost 40 per cent to around 6.2 million tonnes in 2019-20 as against 10.72 million tonnes in 2018-19.
"Based on our analysis, we expect higher yield from the balance sugarcane available for harvesting which is mainly in areas which are high yielding districts like Kolhapur, Satara, Sangli and Pune," ISMA said.