Mumbai, March 10 Former Finance and Cooperation Minister Dilip Walse-Patil on Tuesday sought the intervention of the state government and the Centre to urgently assist the cooperative sugar industry in Maharashtra, which is reeling under a huge financial crisis.
In his speech during the discussion on the budget in the state assembly, Walse-Patil, who is an NCP legislator, said that adverse weather conditions have led to a 15 per cent drop in sugarcane production across the state this year, causing the crushing season to conclude in less than 100 days.
This premature end has dealt a massive financial blow of Rs 3,300 crore to the sugar industry, leaving Rs 4,315 crore in Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) payments to farmers still pending.
Walse-Patil warned that if the state government fails to provide a revival package, the cooperative sugar industry, the backbone of rural Maharashtra, could collapse within the next two years.
He stated that the sugar industry is not just a collection of factories; it is an economic engine. Through various taxes and duties (GST, cess, electricity duty), this industry generates approximately Rs 8,000 crore in annual revenue for the Central and State governments.
The annual turnover of this industry ranges between Rs 50,000 and Rs 60,000 crore.
“Because the Minimum Selling Price (MSP) of sugar is lower than the actual production cost, factories are incurring heavy losses. If these factories collapse, it will directly impact the state’s GST collection. Recent restrictions imposed by the Centre on ethanol production have dried up an alternative revenue stream for factories,” said Walse-Patil.
He demanded an immediate increase in the MSP of sugar, re-incentivisation of ethanol production, and a hike in the sugar export quota allocated by the Centre.
He reminded that the Centre had earlier introduced a soft loan scheme during the 2002–03 sugar season to clear arrears, and demanded that a similar mechanism be adopted by the state government to raise funds and clear cane arrears in a structured and time-bound manner.
“The sugar factory is the ‘spine’ of rural Maharashtra. If this spine breaks, the entire state’s economy will collapse. Therefore, ‘Save the Farmer and Protect the Sugar Industry’ is the greatest need of our time,” remarked Walse-Patil.
--IANS
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