Sugarcane growers to get incentive of Rs 150 per tonne

Karnataka Cabinet today decided to provide an incentive of Rs 150 per tonne of sugarcane in addition to the already announced State Advisory Price of Rs 2,500 per tonne.
The decision follows Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's announcement to this effect during the winter session of the state legislature held at Belgaum recently, Sugar Minister Prakash Hukkeri told reporters here.
The government had come under intense pressure to increase the State Advisory Price after a protesting sugarcane farmer committed suicide in front of the state secretariat during the winter session.
Sugarcane growers, who had rejected the price of Rs 2,500 a tonne fixed by the government, had staged protests demanding that it be raised to Rs 3,500 per tonne.

Sugarcane growers will directly receive the incentive in two installments in a month and about three lakh tonne of sugarcane will be crushed this season, Hukkeri said.
He also said the incentive of Rs 150 per tonne would result in an additional burden of Rs 450 crore on the state exchequer.
The state had already decided to waive value added tax, purchase tax and road tax being collected from sugar mills, to help them pay the State Advisory Price at a difficult time when price of sugar had dipped, he said.
The government had recently constituted a 15-member sugarcane control board after the Karnataka Sugarcane (purchase and supply control) Act 2013 was amended in the monsoon session of the state legislature.