The Union Cabinet did not consider on Wednesday the Rs 4,500-crore plan to more than double the production assistance paid to sugarcane farmers and transport subsidy to sugar exporting mills, sources said.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) may take up the Food Ministry’s proposal next week, they added. The ministry has proposed a sharp increase in production assistance to farmers at Rs 13.88 per quintal for the 2018-19 marketing year (October-September), from Rs 5.5 at present.

The proposal to raise production assistance and transport subsidy of up to Rs 3,000 per tonne to mills for export of five million tonnes of surplus sugar, is part of the government plan to clear more than Rs 13,500-crore in arrears sugar mills have towards farmers.

Yesterday, sources had said the government will have to bear about Rs 4,500 crore on account of these measures to help sugar mills and cane farmers. These steps will enable mills to boost sugar exports and clear cane arrears, which currently stand at Rs 13,567 crore. Mills in Uttar Pradesh owe the maximum at Rs 9,817 crore to cane farmers.

India’s sugar output is set to increase further to 35 million tonnes in the next marketing year, from 32 mt this year. The annual domestic demand stands at 26 mt. The opening stock of sugar is estimated at 10 mt on October 1.

The government has taken a slew of measures to bail out cash-starved sugar mills as well as cane farmers in the last one year. First, it doubled the import duty on sugar to 100 per cent and then scrapped the export duty on it. It also made it compulsory for millers to export two million tonnes of sugar even as global prices were low.

In June, the government had announced a Rs 8,500-crore package for the cash-starved industry, which is facing a glut-like situation thanks to record production of 32 mt in the 2017-18 marketing year ending this month.

The package includes soft loans of Rs 4,440 crore to mills for creating ethanol capacity. It will bear an interest subvention of Rs 1,332 crore for this.

The Centre had also announced assistance of Rs 5.50 per quintal of cane crushed, amounting to Rs 1,540 crore to mills. Around Rs 1,200 crore was allocated for the creation of 3 mt buffer stock of sugar. The minimum selling price of the sweetener has been fixed at Rs 29 per kg.

Last week, the government approved an over 25 per cent hike in the price of ethanol produced directly from sugarcane juice for blending in petrol, in a bid to cut surplus sugar production and reduce oil imports.

The CCEA raised the procurement price of ethanol derived from 100 per cent sugarcane juice to Rs 59.13 per litre from the current rate of Rs 47.13.

The price for ethanol produced from B-heavy molasses (also called intermediary molasses) was hiked to Rs 52.43 a litre from the current Rs 47.13, but that for ethanol produced from C-heavy molasses was reduced marginally to Rs 43.46 from Rs 43.70.

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