KOLHAPUR: State cooperation minister Chandrakant Patil said there was an urgent need to revise the formula used to calculate fair and remunerative price (FRP), which is the mandatory base price fixed every year by the Centre. Several sugar factories have failed to pay even this base price to the cane farmers. 

The FRP was introduced by the Centre some six years back to include the income through bi-products such as molasses, cogeneration, rectified spirit and ethanol. 

This year, except the factories in Kolhapur district, none of the factories in the state has paid the FRP to the farmers. Even in Sangli district, all sugar factories arrived at a consensus to pay only Rs 1,900 per tonne to farmers, when the payment should have been Rs 2,200 at least as per the FRP. 

"There is vast difference between the actual rates of sugar and FRP. When we insist on FRP payment, the factories tend to ignore it and instead pressurize the government for not forcing them to implement the FRP act," Patil told TOI. 

He said he would discuss the issue with department secretary and other officials. The Centre has already come up with zero-interest loan for farmers. The sugar factories' payment of Rs 1,982 crore will be disbursed among the farmers. The interest would be paid by the Centre for the first year, while state will pay for remaining four years. The state will pay around Rs 900 crore every year in the form of interest. 

When asked about Maharashtra government being targeted for anti-cooperative movement actions, Patil said, "If the water scarcity hits the state, the corrective expenditure is Rs 400 crore. We are actually helping the cooperative sector to be the development tool for rural areas. Action is taken against the cooperative institutes that are at fault. Corrupt practices are being stopped; hence some people are making huge noise about cooperation sector." 

He added that private sugar factories are also being supported by the government. "A private sugar factory should be treated as any other private unit that is going through ups and downs of market forces. But here, we are helping them because farmers are in trouble. We cannot abandon factories in weak situation because they would not make payments to farmers."