The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has granted an aid of around Rs. 3,500 crore for assisting the sugarcane farmers (Ganna Kisan) on Wednesday.
CCEA passed the decision in a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, that the government will be providing a sum of Rs 3,500 crore for this objective and the amount would be directly transferred into the farmers accounts on behalf of sugar mills in comparison against the dues impending cane price and any remnants would be transferred to mills’ account.
Whilst giving an official statement, the government iterated that presently in India, there are over 5 crore sugarcane farmers and their dependents in India.
The official statement read, “In addition to this, there are about five lakh workers employed in the sugar mills and the ancillary activities, and their livelihood depends on the sugar industry. 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.”
The government revealed that the subsidy is with the objective of covering the amount for marketing costs which comprises of handling, upgrading and other processing charges and also has the transport charges both international and internal and freight charges inclining towards the export of around 60 lakh metric tonne of sugar which is restricted as per maximum admissible export quota assigned for sugar mills pertaining to sugar season 2020-21.
The statement further added, “This 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.”
