The cane dues of Rs. 17301 crores were outstanding against the sugar mills as on 15.07.2015. Since then, Rs. 10,620 crores have been paid to the sugarcane producers up to 15.11.2015.
The payment of cane dues is an ongoing process and the dues position changes continuously on account of fresh supplies received and payment made for previous supplies. As such, it is not possible to indicate time line by which the full amount would be paid. This was informed by the Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Ram Vilas Paswan.
He said that funds amounting to Rs. 4151 crores were disbursed under Soft Loan Scheme which were credited directly into farmer’s account. It helped in reducing the cane price arrears. With a view to facilitate clearance of cane price arrears of sugarcane farmers, the Central Government has taken several other initiatives also. These measures include:-
Ø Incentive for exporting raw sugar in sugar seasons 2013-14 and 2014-15.
Ø Fixing remunerative prices for supplies of ethanol to Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) for blending with petrol to improve liquidity of mills; waiver of excise duty on ethanol supplies to OMCs during 2015-16 and scaling up of blending targets from 5% to 10%.
Ø Enhanced import duty to 40% to discourage imports.
Ø The “Duty Free Import Authorization” scheme (DFIA), for sugar withdrawn.
Ø The period for discharging Export Obligations under the Advanced Authorization Scheme for sugar reduced to 6 months to prevent leakage into the domestic economy.
Ø Notified a scheme on 2.12.2015 to extend production subsidy @ Rs. 4.50 per quintal to sugar mills to offset the cost of cane and facilitate timely payment of cane price dues of farmers.
