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

• Screen GrabThe Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved assistance of three thousand 500 crore rupees for sugarcane farmers.
• Briefing the media in New Delhi after the Cabinet meeting.resently, there are around five crore sugarcane farmers and their dependents in India.
• Apart from that, there are around five lakh workers who are employed in the sugar mills and ancillary activities. Their livelihood depends on the sugar industry.
• The subsidy will benefit the five crore sugarcane farmers and their dependents in the country.

How this fund will be utilised?

• Currently, Farmers sell their sugarcane to the sugar mills. But they do not get their dues from the sugar mill owners because they have surplus sugar stock.
• Thus, to address this issue, the Government is facilitating the evacuation of surplus sugar stock.
• By doing do, the sugarcane farmers would be provided with their dues.
• For this purpose, the Government will incur about Rs. 3,500 crores.
• The compensation would be directly credited into farmers’ accounts.
• It will be credited on behalf of the sugar mills against the cane price dues and subsequent balance.

Aim of the subsidy

• The subsidy is being provided with the aim to cover the expenses on marketing costs.
• It also includes the handling, upgrading and other processing costs.
• Costs of international transport, internal transport and freight charges on export of up to 60 LMT of sugar has also been included.
• These charges are limited to the Maximum Admissible Export Quota (MAEQ) which has been allocated to the sugar mills for 2020-21 sugar session.