Bengaluru: Blaming the crash in sugar prices on the delay in payment of arrears by mills to farmers, Cooperation Minister H S Mahadeva Prasad urged the Central government to resolve the issue.
He told reporters here on Wednesday that the total arrears due to farmers in the state were over Rs 4,300 crore, including Rs 953 crore from the previous year.
Stating that the Union government had fixed Rs 2,200 per tonne of sugarcane as the Fair and Remunerative Price (FAP) when the market price of sugar was about Rs 28 to Rs 30 per kg, the minister said the price had now crashed to Rs 22 per kg.
Karnataka, which is the third largest sugarcane-growing state in the country, crushed over 435 lakh hectares during 2014-15. “The huge price fluctuation of sugar in the open market had made sugar mills the defaulters,” he said.
He said the Centre’s recent measures in enhancing import duty would not help in resolving the crisis immediately and urged it to come up with proactive measures.
Expressing apprehension over the impending sugar industry crisis in the next crushing season, he exhorted the Union government to take up the responsibility of paying Rs 300 per tonne to the farmers on behalf of sugar mills towards arrears.
He said the total dues to farmers from sugar mills for the sugarcane procured in the country were around Rs 19,000 crore, including Rs 10,000 crore in Uttar Pradesh and Rs 3,000 crore in Maharashtra.
“The Karnataka government is committed to seeing farmers receive their share of the money for sugarcane supplied to mills,” he said.
He said that due to the crash in sugar prices, over 35 lakh tonnes of ready sugar valued at over Rs 7,500 crore was lying in the godowns of over 32 mills. “If the sugar mills fail to take measures to clear the arrears, we will not hesitate to impound the sugar stock lying in their godowns,” he said.
