The Maharashtra State cabinet announced on Wednesday its commitment to guarantee loans extended by the State cooperative bank to struggling sugar mills. Additionally, the cabinet approved a measure whereby the bank will offer these loans to sugar mills at a lower interest rate than what the National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) typically charges.
The statement released by the Chief Minister’s Office after the cabinet meeting announced this decision. Previously, numerous co-operative sugar barons in the State had approached both the government and the NCDC seeking assistance to rejuvenate these mills.
Several leaders from the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), who are now part of the BJP government in the State, were keen about receiving support from the State government to rescue their mills from financial turmoil. Some of these mills had failed to pay the Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) to farmers for the sugarcane crushed during the last season.
NCP leader and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar was actively interested in aiding these sugar mills and had recently held a meeting with Union Co-operative Minister Amit Shah to discuss the matter.