Journalism of Courage
Nearly 60 sugar mills in the state have obtained NOC from the Sugar Commissionerate to be eligible for the Rs 1,850-crore Central loan announced earlier this year. With the cane arrears in the state running at around Rs 3100 crore, it is expected that mills will start applying for the loan from this week onwards.
A bumper cane production and low international prices had resulted in a major crisis for the sugar sector this year. A total of 178 factories had crushed 929.5 lakh metric tonnes of cane and the sugar production had touched 104.79 lakh metric tonnes.
In order to help the sugar sector across the country, the Central government had announced a soft loan of Rs 6,000 crore, with the state receiving Rs 1,850 crore.
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As per the government resolution, mills that have paid up 50 per cent or more of their cane arrears as well as those who have been crushing for the last two years would be eligible for the loan. Accordingly, only 148 of the 178 mills would be eligible for the loan. For the eligible ones too, there are other “stringent conditions”, which are being pointed out as “detrimental” to accept the loan. Of the 60 mills that have obtained the NOC, 40 are cooperative mills while the rest are private.
Pramod Karnad, Managing Director of the Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank, said they were yet to hear from the banks about the loan. “We think proposals will start rolling in from this week,” he said. As many as 32 mills are affiliated to the apex bank.
