UP sugar mills accumulate arrears of Rs 3,373 crore

Against commitments totalling Rs 10,293 cr on 116 working units, mills have collectively paid Rs 6,920 cr to farmers

Halfway through the ongoing sugarcane crushing season in Uttar Pradesh, the sugar mills have already accumulated farmers' arrears of Rs 3,373 crore during 2015-16.

Against commitments totalling Rs 10,293 crore on 116 functional units, the mills have collectively paid about Rs 6,920 crore to farmers. The bulk of payments are due on the private mills, whose total strength number over 90.

Interestingly, the private mills have also to clear Rs 441 crore in arrears pertaining to the previous 2014-15 crushing season. Mawana, Modi and Rana Groups carry the maximum arrears of Rs 169 crore, Rs 140 crore and Rs 25 crore respectively.

The mills have produced almost 5.4 million tones of sugar even as 13 mills have already closed for the season. The sugar recovery rate stands at 10.43 percent, which is a percent higher than last year. Sugar recovery refers to sugar produced per unit of cane crushed.

Meanwhile, taking a tough stance on the sluggish pace of farmers' payments by private mills, UP cane commissioner Vipin Kumar Dwivedi has summoned the occupiers/officials of 50 mills, whose payments are less than 75 percent of dues.

The divisional commissioners of the concerned divisions have also been called at the meeting on March 8. Some mills viz. Malakpur, Mawana, Tiwati, Modinagar and Unn have not paid a single penny to farmers.

While, the government and cooperative sugar mills have cleared 98 percent and 80 percent of dues, the private mills have been laggard with consolidated payment percentage of 66 percent.

Earlier, the Akhilesh Yadav government had decided not to hike the cane price for the current 2015-16 crushing season.

With State Advised Price (SAP) of Rs 280 per quintal for common variety of sugarcane, this is the fourth year running when the same price is effective in UP, the country largest and second largest cane and sugar producer respectively.

The last time, when SAP was hiked in UP was in 2012-13, when it was increased by 17 per cent to Rs 280 per quintal for common variety, which forms the bulk of the cash crop. For the subsequent crushing seasons 2013-14, 2014-15 and current 2015-16 seasons, the SAP has been retained.