Mumbai: Within a month of the Maharashtra State Co-operative Sugar Factories Federation raising an alarm over purported financial crisis in the industry, saying it was coming in the way of payment of fair and remunerative prices (FRP) to cane farmers, 15 sugar mills in the state have received notices from the sugar commissioner for paying farmers less than 60% of the FRP. A majority of the mills are located in Solapur district and associated with leaders of various political parties. Prominent in the list are NCP minister for relief and rehabilitation Makrand Patil, who is associated with the Kisan Veer sugar factory in Satara and BJP MLA Subhas Deshmukh, who is associated with the Lokmangal sugar factory in Solapur.
Patil told Hindustan Times that Kisan Veer sugar factory would pay all farmers as per the FRP in coming days.
“We are in talks with banks regarding settlement of loans taken by the previous management. Once these loans are settled, our factory will be in a position to pledge the sugar in stock and receive money from banks, which will be used to pay farmers as per FRP,” he said.
The NCP minister’s brother, Rajya Sabha MP and director of Kisan Veer sugar factory Nitin Patil said that the sugar industry was facing various challenges including stagnation of the minimum support price at which mills sell sugar for over five years.
“The central government needs to revise the MSP. We are also in talks with the state government regarding increasing payment for electricity generated from co-generation plants within sugar factories,” said the Rajya Sabha MP.
BJP MLA Subhash Deshmukh also raised concerns about the stagnation of MSP and said Lokmangal sugar factory was unable to pay farmers as per FRP as the crushing season was limited to just 100 days, which impacted both sugar production and revenue.
“Factories are struggling to pay the FRP due to various issues like low sugar production and drop in revenue. But they also have an obligation to pay farmers as per FRP, apart from salaries to employees and other expenses throughout the year. Long-term solutions need to be found, such as running sugar factories across the year and hiking the MSP,” said Deshmukh.
The management of Swami Samarth Sugar and Agro industries at Nevasa in Ahilyanagar district, associated with Shiv Sena MLA Vijay Shivtare, said it had received a revenue recovery certificate from the sugar commissioner despite submitting papers showing they had paid around 90% of the FRP. The notice was due to miscommunication, the management claimed.
More sugar mills are likely receive such revenue recovery certificates from the sugar commissioner as the industry is facing a severe crisis and state government has not paid heed to pleas for financial assistance, said PR Patil, chairman, Maharashtra State Co-Operative Sugar Factories Federation. The sugar commissioner’s report regarding FRP for the current season shows that apart from the 14 factories that paid farmers less than 60% of FRP, 31 factories paid less than 80% while 50 factories paid 80-99% of the FRP. The number of sugar mills that paid farmers as per the FRP was 105.
