New Delhi, Dec 16 (Agency) The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on Wednesday approved assistance of about Rs 3,500 crore for sugarcane farmers. Addressing mediapersons here, Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar said farmers are not getting their dues from the sugar mill owners as they have surplus sugar stock. “To address this concern, the Government is facilitating the evacuation of surplus sugar stock. This will enable payment of dues of the sugarcane farmers,” he said.
Government will incur about Rs 3,500 crore for this purpose, and the assistance would be directly credited into farmers’ accounts on behalf of sugar mills against cane price dues and subsequent balance, if any, would be credited to mill’s account, Mr Javadekar said. The subsidy aims at covering expenses on marketing costs including handling, upgrading and other processing costs and costs of international and internal transport and freight charges on export of upto 60 LMT of sugar limited to Maximum Admissible Export Quota (MAEQ) allocated to sugar mills for sugar season 2020-21. The decision will benefit the five crore sugarcane farmers and their dependents, as well as the five lakh workers employed in the sugar mills and related ancillary activities, the minister added.