Govt to subsidise finance and insurance cost for sugar buffer stock

Charges will be reimbursed to mills at Rs 29 per kg of sugar price, as opposed to the all-India average cost of production of Rs 35-36 a kg

Norms for creating three million tonnes of sugar buffer stock have been notified by the Union Ministry of Consumers Affairs and Public Distribution. 

According to the notification, instead of buying sugar from mills, the government will finance the cost of sugar and storage will be at mill-owned godowns, along with sugar pledged by mills with banks. It will also bear a finance cost of 12 per cent a year or actual interest charged by the banks, whichever is lower, along with insurance and storage charges at 1.5 per cent a year. 

What has irked the mills is that the sugar price