Sugarcane growers seek hike in cess on imported sugar

The All India Coordination Committee of Sugarcane Growers has asked the Union government to increase the cess on imported sugar from 40 to 60 per cent to prevent dumping and regulate the prices of sugar in the wholesale and retail markets.

State Convener of the Committee Maruti Manpade, who is also President of the Karnataka Pranta Raita Sangha (KPRS), told presspersons here today that this action was needed to save the interests of sugarcane growers.

The growers also wanted the Centre to increase the ratio of mixing of ethanol in petrol and diesel from 10 to 20 per cent. This would help the sugarcane growers to get more returns due to the increase in the revenue from the by-products of sugarcane.

Mr. Manpade said that Cooperative Miniser H.C. Mahadev Prasad, who also holds the Sugar portfolio, has convened a meeting of the Sugar Directorate on November 10 in Bengaluru with farmers’ representatives to discuss various issues including the delay in fixing the Sate Advisory Prices (SAP) for sugarcane this year.

A delegation of sugarcane farmers had met Mr. Prasad in Bengaluru last week and demanded the early fixing of SAP since majority of the sugar factories had already started crushing operations. The delegation sought SAP of Rs. 3,600 per tonne and implementation of the M.S. Swaminathan Committee report in toto .

Payments pending

To a question, Mr. Manpade said that the sugar factories in the State owned more than Rs 100 crore to farmers who had supplied cane in the year 2013-14. This was due to the stay obtained by the factories to the government order asking them to pay extra Rs. 200 per tonne. He wanted the government to implead itself in the pending cases before the High Court and work for the early disposal of the case or vacating the stay given for the execution of the government order.

He said that sugar factories had fixed the transportation and cutting charges of sugarcane per tonne at Rs. 741 which was ‘unscientific’. The government should direct the factories to cap the charges at Rs. 500. To a question, he said fixing the sugarcane price at Rs. 3,600 per tonne would not be a burden on the factories since they made good profit from by-products such as molasses and ethanol (approximately Rs. 950 per tonne).