Banks have disbursed Rs 5,164 crore interest-free loans to nearly 300 sugar mills till July 4 under a central scheme to help the cash-starved industry clear sugarcane arrears to farmers.
The Centre on January 3 notified a 'Scheme for Extending Financial Assistance to Sugar Undertakings' for providing interest-free bank loans worth Rs 6,600 crore to sugar mills exclusively for paying cane price arrears to farmers.
"As per the information received from the nodal bank i.E State Bank of India, loans amounting to Rs 5,775 crore have been sanctioned up to June 30, 2014 under the scheme.
"Out of the sanctioned amount Rs 5,164 crore have been disbursed to the sugar mills up to July 4, 2014," Minister of State for Food and Consumer Affairs Raosaheb Patil Danve said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.
As many as 297 mills have benefited under this scheme so far, although the sanctioned amount of Rs 5,775.22 crore is for 340 sugar mills.
The loan amount has to be utilised by the sugar mills for clearance of cane price arrears of previous sugar seasons and timely settlement of cane price of current sugar season to sugarcane farmers, Danve said.
Uttar Pradesh-based 72 sugar mills have got the maximum Rs 1,764.86 crore out of the total disbursement, followed by Maharashtra Rs 1,724.99 crore and Tamil Nadu Rs 550.5 crore, showed the data submitted to the Lok Sabha.
Karnataka millers got Rs 347.67 crore, Gujarat-based mills - Rs 283.64 crore, Delhi mills - Rs 175.06 crore and Andhra Pradesh mills - Rs 130.04 crore.
India's sugar production is estimated to rise by 4 per cent to 25.3 million tonnes during the next marketing year starting October, despite a drop in cane area by 2 per cent, according to industry body ISMA.
Sugar production of India, the world's second largest producer, is estimated at 24.3 million tonnes in the 2013-14 marketing year (October-September).
