Cash-strapped sugar mills to pay Maharashtra farmers in kind

Shiv Kumar
Tribune News Service
Mumbai, February 7

Sugar mills run by various politicians in Maharashtra, who are yet to clear dues of more than Rs 5300 crore to sugarcane farmers, have announced that they would make payments in kind as they are short of cash.

The decision comes after the Devendra Fadnavis government issued notices for the auction of properties belonging to sugar mills which failed to pay sugarcane cultivators the Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) of Rs 2,800 per tonne in one go.

More than 180 sugar mills controlled by leaders of various political parties have paid just Rs 2500 per tonne of cane so far on the grounds that the price of sugar has fallen due to a glut in Indian and foreign markets.

With farmers attacking several sugar factories, politicians who head co-operatives have offered to pay the difference in the FRP in kind.

For every tonne of cane brought in by a farmer for crushing, he would be paid Rs 2500 in cash and 17 kilogrammes of sugar.

While several farmers have protested this move saying there was no way they could stock the sugar or sell it in the urban markets, the Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana said its members would take payments in kind and sell the same for whatever price the stock would fetch in the markets.

Several sugar mills have invited applications from farmers who are interested in taking payments in kind.

Member of Parliament Raju Shetti, who heads the SSS, told reporters that the farmers would accept payments in kind and sell the sugar below the ex-factory price of Rs 2900 per quintal.

The farmers would also pay some rent for keeping their sugar stock in the warehouses of the sugar mills, Shetti is quoted as saying.