Nivruttinagar: Sugar mills claim they are finding it difficult to sell sugar at minimum selling price (MSP) of Rs 3,100 per quintal fixed by the central government. Therefore, mills have demanded to hike the MSP.
Satyashil Sherkar, chairman of Shri Vighnahar Cooperative Sugar Mill in Maharashtra, on Thursday, said, “The average production cost of sugar is Rs 3400 to Rs 3500 per quintal as against the sugar MSP of Rs 3,100 per quintal, and due to which mill is bearing looses. Considering the production cost of sugar, the government should hike sugar MSP to Rs 3,600 per quintal.”
Earlier also Sherkar had raised MSP issue. He alleged that the Central government’s decision of fixing MSP of sugar at Rs 31 per kg throughout India has benefitted a state like Uttar Pradesh. As a result, UP supplies sugar all over India, and Maharashtra mills faced sugar glut.
In the month of June this year, the National Co-operative Sugar Factories Federation (NCSFF) also demanded that MSP of sugar should be increased from the present level of Rs 3100 per quintal to help mills improve their financial condition.
Concerned over mounting cane arrears ahead of Lok Sabha polls, the Indian government on February 14, 2019, hiked the MSP of sugar by Rs 2 per kg to Rs 31 to help millers clear farmers’ dues.
Sugar mills across India, majorly in Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, owe crores of rupees to sugarcane farmers. Millers in the country claim due to excessive sugar production and depressed sugar prices, they failed to accumulate money and pay the cane arrears to the cane growers.
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