Cabinet approves assistance of Rs 3,500 cr for sugarcane farmers

New Delhi, Dec 17: Addressing the concerns of the sugarcane farmers, the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved assistance of about Rs. 3,500 crore for them (Ganna Kisan). Briefing the media here after the Cabinet meeting, Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar said, "Cabinet has taken the decision to help farmers directly by depositing money of subsidy into their accounts. It will benefit five crore farmers and five lakh, workers."

 

 

Farmers sell their sugarcane to the sugar mills, however, the 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.

 

In order to do so, the government will incur about Rs. 3,500 crore for this purpose and this 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.

 

This 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 the export of up to 60 LMT of sugar limited to Maximum Admissible Export Quota (MAEQ) allocated to sugar mills for sugar season 2020-21.

 

The Cabinet also approved the auction of spectrum in 700 megahertz, 800 megahertz, 900 megahertz, 1800 megahertz, 2100 megahertz, 2300 megahertz, and 2500 megahertz frequency bands, for a validity period of 20 years. Talking to reporters, Communication and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said, a total of 2 thousand 2 hundred 51.25 megahertz is being offered with a total valuation of 3 lakh 92 thousand 3 hundred 32.70 crore rupees at the reserve price.

 

Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has welcomed the cabinet's decision to transfer 3,500 crore rupees export subsidy on sugar directly to the bank accounts of the sugarcane farmers. He said this will put an end to the problems plaguing them for years. Pradhan said it will boost sugarcane production leading to additional ethanol production and employment generation besides adding to the farmers' income.