With Opposition continuing to rap the Government over the dues of sugarcane growers, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah told the Legislative Assembly on Tuesday that the Government is not “Akshya Patra” and it has no plans of paying special incentive to growers for 2014-15.
The Government had given Rs. 200 a tonne as incentive to growers for 2013-14.
Intervening during the debate on pending dues to cane growers by factories during 2013-14, he said the Centre had fixed the fair remunerative price (FRP) at Rs. 2,200 a tonne of cane for 2014-15, while the factories paid only Rs. 1,800 a tonne owing to sharp fall in the sugar prices in the open market.
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As the Opposition questioned the Government’s preparedness to tackle the cane crisis this year, Mr. Siddaramaiah said sugar prices crashed from Rs. 30 a kg to Rs. 20 kg in the open market and the Government would not be paying to growers the difference between FRP and actual price paid by factories.
A delegation would be taken to the Centre to urge it to pay the price difference of Rs. 400 to cane growers during 2014-15.
During 2013-14, the State had produced 49 lakh tonnes of sugar and 18 lakh tonnes of sugar had been sold. The Government had seized 31 lakh tonnes of sugar from factories. A sum of Rs. 6,000 crore can be fetched by selling 31 tonnes of sugar, he said.
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Twenty-four sugar factories questioned the incentive price of Rs. 200 a tonne announced by the Government in the High Court of Karnataka. Despite the court order, they had not paid incentive price amounting to Rs. 923 crore during 2013-14. Factory owners expressed their readiness to go jail by refusing to pay incentive price, the Chief Minister said. Sugar units made huge profits when sugar price crossed Rs. 30 a kg and crying foul when prices crashed, he said.
Leader of the Opposition Jagadish Shettar said that the Government should play the role of a mediator and direct the factories to pay the price difference to cane growers.