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Union Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan seeks higher import duty on Sugar |
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NEW DELHI: Union Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan plans to seek an increase in import duty on sugar to 40% in a bid to boost domestic sales and support farmers who are yet to be paid for cane sold to mills.
"We are looking at various measures to resolve farmers' and millers' issues and will talk to the finance minister," Paswan said after a meeting with farmers' leaders from 12 sugarcane-growing states on Wednesday. Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari and Minister of State for Agriculture Sanjeev Balyan also attended.
Paswan said he would write to Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, pressing for an increase in the import duty on sugar, which is currently 25%. The minister has convened a meeting with state chief ministers on April 16 to discuss the issue of rising arrears payable to farmers.
The amount owed by sugar mills to farmers has risen to Rs 19,243 crore, with UP accounting for the bulk of the arrears, Paswan said on April 8. Higher duty would restrict sugar imports and ensure that domestic sales pick up, said the food ministry officials. However, the industry says the government should create a strategic stockpile of sugar immediately.
"We want the government to create a buffer stock of sugar of 2.5 million tonne, just like China has done. This will ensure that farmers get prices and it gives the industry the liquidity to pay farmers," said A Vellayan, president of the Indian Sugar Mills Association. Sugar production in the country is expected to rise to 26.5 million tonne in the 2014-15 season, from 24.4 million tonne in the previous year. Demand is estimated at 22-23 million tonne. Weak sugar prices have hurt the ability of mills to pay farmers for cane at rates set by state governments.
A decline in global prices has made sugar exports uncompetitive, the industry said.
Currently, very little sugar is imported, it said. Farmer leader VM Singh, convenor of the Rashtriya Kisan Mazdoor Sangathan, said the Centre has to play a more proactive role in this issue.
"Four mills in Uttar Pradesh — Malakpur, Modinagar, Titawi and Mawana — have yet to pay cane dues to farmers from 2013-14. The Centre can take action against the mills, apart from procuring sugar to stabilise prices," he said. Maharashtra is the second in the list with Rs 2,864-crore sugarcane arrears, followed by Karnataka at Rs 2,402.39 crore.
Source : economictimes.indiatimes.com
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