The sugar sector in Andhra Pradesh seems to be no one’s baby.

While farmers say they are not getting remunerative prices, the sugar industry feels it is burdened with low sugar prices and flood of imports from other States.

The Government, however, seems to be reaping good sugar harvest. It is getting a higher price than what the growers are getting for a tonne of cane.

As many as 22 functional factories in the State contributed ₹1,700 crore to the State revenues and ₹100 crore to the Central kitty in the form of Excise Duty – or ₹2,500 a tonne of cane crushed by them.

Compare this against ₹2,300-2,400 that the cane growers receive from factories. The industry claims it is they are paying more to the farmers more than the price (of ₹2,270 a quintal) and making a loss of about ₹1,000 a quintal.

“The government must implement the recommendations of Rangarajan Committee which proposed to share revenues on 70:30 ratio between the farmers and factories. Instead, they are announcing a price for farmers but leaving the interests of the industry to the wind,” N Nageswara Rao, President of SISMA (AP), told BusinessLine.

“After making continuous losses in the last few years, the factories in the State are finding it impossible to fund this loss any longer. While sugarcane prices went up by about 145 per cent (over 2006-07 price), sugar price went up by only 85 per cent,” Raghuraj S Bhalerao, Secretary of SISMA-AP, said.

The State has an installed capacity of 84,450 tcd (tonnes crushed a day) in 2014-15, down by 4,300 tcd over last year’s 88,750 tcd.

Consequently, sugar produced in the State came down to 5.64 lakh tonnes from 6.76 lt.

The sugar industry in Andhra Pradesh sites the examples of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Maharashtra that announced financial assistance to factories to help them clear dues and export of raw sugar.

He said the State continued VAT (value added tax) imposed by the erstwhile united Andhra Pradesh Government on sale of sugar in 2011.

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