Maha CM, opposition leaders meet PM on falling sugar price

With sugar prices plunging and agitation by cane farmers turning violent, Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithiviraj Chavan and opposition leaders met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today and appraised him of the problems faced by the sugarcane industry.
In a memorandum submitted to the Prime Minister, the delegation said declining price of sugarcane has aggravated the problems of the industry and it led to serious law and order problems in the state.
It also requested the government to accept all the recommendations of the Rangarajan committee.
Chavan, who was also accompanied by his cabinet colleagues, said the delegation had presented a list of demands to the Prime Minister, which included allowing blending of ethanol from 5 per cent to 10 per cent and permit factories to export approximately 50 lakh tonnes of sugar and give subsidy of Rs 500 per quintal.

Further, the delegation demanded that in order to improve the domestic sugar market, the import duty on sugar and raw sugar be enhanced from the present level of 15 per cent to 40 per cent and the time period for sugar imported under Duty Free Import Authorization (DFIA) scheme be reduced from the present two years to three months.
Chavan said interest-free loan to sugar factories should be given in lieu of excise duty paid by them for the last five years to be repaid in five years after a moratorium period of two years. This will improve cash flows of sugar factories and help them make timely payment to cane-growers as per the provisions of sugarcane control order 1966.

He said rescheduling and restructuring of loans have been done in the past in order to avoid their accounts getting declared as NPAs. On the same lines, the outstanding bank loans should be restructured so as to be repayable in seven years with two years moratorium to help the sugar industry.