Maharashtra to back loans to revive closed sugar mills

Rs 300-crore loan aims to restart 34 cooperative mills.

The Maharashtra government will provide a default guarantee for a Rs 300-crore loan to revive 34 cooperative sugar mills, closed for two years.

The banks concerned have agreed to make the loan available to enable these mills to participate in the next cane-crushing season that begins October 1.

Of the Rs 300 crore, Rs 80 crore is for pre-seasonal operations and Rs 220 crore is the short-term loan for restarting crushing.

Harshvardhan Patil, state cooperation minister, told Business Standard, “These mills can revive, especially when there will be excess sugarcane availability (in the coming season) for crushing. In all, 168 mills, 130 cooperative (including the 34 now-closed ones) and 38 private mills are expected to take part in the ensuing season. These mills would help crush the entire 75.2 million tonnes of cane (expected) within 200 days starting October 1. Banks have agreed to give the loans immediately.”

The crushing programme of the mills concerned would be monitored by a joint committee, including bank representatives, beside the loan utilisation. The 34 mills have agreed to amicably settle pending disputes with their labourers.

Prakash Naiknavare, managing director of the Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories of Maharashtra, the largest sugar producer in the country, said sugar mills in the state were poised to produce 8.65 million tonnes of new sugar, at an average recovery of 11.5 per cent. During 2009-10, mills crushed 61.44 mt cane to produce 7.1 mt of sugar.

A monitoring committee under the chairmanship of the commissioner of sugar and comprising managing directors of the Federation of Coops, the State Cooperative Bank and the Vasantdada Sugar Institute would regularly review and analyse the field monitoring.