The Uttar Pradesh government has decided not to hike the State Advisory Price (SAP) for the sugarcane for the ongoing crushing season, reports IANS.
As per the notification issued by the sugarcane development department, the SAP for the general variety of cane will be at Rs 340 per quintal as it was last year while the procurement price for early variety would be Rs 350 per quintal, and for the late variety, it would be Rs 335 per quintal.
The SAP for sugarcane was revised by the state government in September 2021, ahead of the state Assembly elections.
According to the officials, the government is focussing on timely and efficient payment of cane dues to farmers rather than hiking SAP.
As per the sources, the sugar mills have cleared 72% of the cane dues to the farmers for the current crushing season so far.
The increase in SAP would result in increasing pending cane dues as the mills are already burdened with the pressure of less revenue recovery due to the low cost of sugar in the open market, said a senior official in the UP Sugar Mills Association (UPSMA).
Sugar was sold at Rs 33 per kg as against the demand of around Rs 36 per kg, said millers.
