The Centre has claimed that its various policy interventions have helped bring down arrears of payment to sugarcane farmers in the country to about Rs 9,361 crore, as against a level of Rs 22,000 crore last year.
A statement issued by the Food Ministry on Saturday said the Rs 9,361 crore arrears included Rs 2,855 crore owed by sugar mills in Uttar Pradesh against the Centre’s fair and remunerative price (FRP) of Rs 230 per quintal for cane fixed in the current 2015-16 crushing season from October. But the cane dues are higher, at Rs 5,795 crore, based on the UP government’s state advised price of Rs 280/quintal.
The Indian Express had, on Saturday, reported the cane dues figure of Rs 5,795 crore for UP based on data from the Cane Commissioner’s Office in Lucknow. These dues were much more than the Rs “700-800 crore” cane arrears mentioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a rally in Saharanpur on Thursday. According to the Food Ministry’s statement, the cane arrears of Rs 780 crore, including Rs 191 crore of UP, related to the preceding 2014-15 sugar season ended September.
Among the policy measures taken by the Centre to alleviate the situation were soft loans with a one-year interest moratorium totalling Rs 4,305 crore extended to mills specifically to pay cane arrears and a modified ethanol blending programme (EBP) leading to a jump in total supplies to oil marketing companies from 38 crore litres in 2013-14 to a likely 130 crore this season. The remunerative prices for ethanol under the modified EBP helped inject “substantial liquidity” to help the sugar industry to reduce cane arrears, the statement added.