Govt To Add Rs 3,500 Crore Subsidy Directly To Bank Accounts Of Sugarcane Farmers

On Wednesday, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved Rs 3,500 crore subsidy for sugar farmers, said Union Minister Prakash Javadekar.

"Today Cabinet has taken a historic decision to help farmers directly, by putting money of subsidy into their bank accounts. The subsidy will be given on 60 lakh tons of sugar exports at the rate of Rs 6,000 per ton," he said addressing the press.

He added that 5 crore sugarcane farmers will benefit from the Cabinet's decision.

"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. 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," said CCEA in a statement.

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.