The Union Minister for Food and Civil Supplies Ram Vilas Paswan here on Thursday blamed owners of the sugar mills for the growers’ problems across the country.
He was speaking to presspersons after meeting Chief Minister Siddaramaiah here.
Mr. Paswan said despite the Centre releasing subsidy to export 14 lakh tonnes of sugar, hiking import duty on sugar from 25 to 40 per cent, waiving off excise duty on sale of ethanol, and offering interest-free loan of Rs. 6,000 crore, the mill owners were not prepared to pass on the benefit to sugarcane growers by paying fair and remunerative price. Clearing dues towards farmers was the responsibility of mill owners, he said.
He clarified that the Union government was not considering the sugar industry’s demand for creation of a sugar buffer stock of two million tonnes to help them clear dues towards farmers. Interestingly, Mr. Siddaramaiah had favoured creation of buffer stock during the interaction with Mr. Paswan.
The Chief Minister maintained that sugar mill owners were not in a position to pay FRP, because of the fall in sugar prices. He appealed to Mr. Paswan to convince Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to compensate Rs. 400 — which sugar mills claim is the quantum of deficit per tonne of sugarcane — if they have to pay the full FRP from the present market prices of sugar.
Asking Mr. Siddaramaiah to submit a memorandum to the Centre, Mr. Paswan said he would discuss the issue in the Cabinet meeting.
Later, the Chief Minister told reporters that with the fall in price of sugar to Rs. 21 a kg, sugar mill owners were not in a position to pay FRP of Rs. 2,200 (for 9.5 per cent sugar recovery level) to growers. Of the Rs. 6,000 crore released by the Centre recently to sugar mill owners, Karnataka will get a maximum of Rs. 900 crore. Mill owners could clear arrears to growers to the extent of 40 per cent.
“We have appealed to the Centre to compensate another 60 per cent to ease the situation,” he said. Sugar mills have to clear Rs. 2,438 crore due to growers for 2014-15.
