Most of sugar stocks fell today even as the government hiked ethanol price by almost ₹ 3 per litre in a bid to give higher price for sugarcane.
Balrampur Chini fell 0.82 per cent to ₹ 66.25, Shree Renuka Sugars slipped 1.57 per cent to ₹ 12.55, Bajaj Hindushtan Sugar dipped 2.32 per cent to ₹6.74, Thiru Aroonan Sugars tanked 2.39 per cent to ₹ 26.55.
However, Dhampur Sugar advanced 0.89 per cent to ₹ 84.80.
The government today decided to raise price of ethanol, used for doping in petrol, by almost ₹ 3 per litre to ₹ 43.70 in a bid to cut India’s oil import dependence as well as give higher price for sugarcane.
The sugar industry and even NCP supremo Sharad Pawar had demanded a higher ethanol price to improve the liquidity of cash-starved mills and enable them clear cane arrears.
Sugar mills are incurring losses as prices have fallen below production cost on account of record output of 31.5 million tonne in 2017-18 season as against the annual domestic demand of 25 million tonne.
The higher price for this grade of ethanol produced from C-molasses will be for ethanol marketing year starting December 2018, acording to Finance Minister Piyush Goyal.
Oil marketing companies procure ethanol from sugar mills for blending with petrol. Mills are expecting revenue realisation of over ₹ 5,000 crore from sale of ethanol to OMCs during the 2017-18 sugar season (October-September).