Subsidy paid to farmers not to Sugar Mills: Punjab Sugar Mills Association
Author(s): City Air NewsSays, Didn’t make Rs.500 Crore profit, as alleged; Punjab Government was supposed to give cash subsidy to farmers Ludhiana, October 4, 2016: Reacting over the news-items appearing in the dailies that seven...
cityairnews
Oct 4, 2016 12:30
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Says, Didn’t make Rs.500 Crore profit, as alleged; Punjab Government was supposed to give cash subsidy to farmers
Ludhiana, October 4, 2016: Reacting over the news-items appearing in the dailies that seven private sugar mills in Punjab have made a profit of Rs.500 crore between November 2015 and May 2016, even as they availed a subsidy of Rs.112 crore from the state government citing huge losses in sugar production, the Punjab Sugar Mills Association has said, “We categorically clarify here that the news-item is far away from the facts. Whereas the bitter truth is that last year, the sugar mills incurred huge financial losses because of high sugarcane prices.”
It may be mentioned here that it is true that the state government had announced to give a subsidy of Rs.50 per quintal to sugarcane growers. The said subsidy was to be directly paid to the Sugarcane Growers and not to the Sugar Mills.
It may be recalled here that the condition of sugar mills in the state last year was not good, incurring heavy losses resulting to which some of the sugar mills had even decided to stop the crushing of sugarcane. The sugar mills had given public notices in the news paper announcing to stop the crushing of sugarcane mentioning that “we find it difficult to run Sugar Mills as there is a huge loss due to the high cane price announced by the state government compared to the price of sugar in the market”. To deal with the situation, the state government then held a meeting with the representatives of Punjab Sugar Mills Association and gave a formula to work. However, the association representatives did not accede to that formula suggested by the state government. Again, another meeting between the association representatives and the state government was held in November last year, in which the state government agreed to give a direct cash subsidy of Rs.50 per quintal to sugarcane growers.
“However, it is surprising that now the state government is asking the sugar mills owners to make payments of subsidy which was supposed to be paid by the State Government”, said the Punjab Sugar Mills Association, adding, “It clearly indicates that Punjab Government is escaping from fulfilling the promises made earlier.”
Punjab Sugar Mills Association said, “We strongly feel that this step of the government is not justified.”
Date:
Tuesday, October 4, 2016
