Sugar mills owe Rs 13,899 crore to sugarcane growers as of March 21, 2018 of the current marketing year (October-September). Uttar Pradesh mills have maximum cane price arrear at Rs 5,136 crore, followed by Karnataka at Rs 2,539 crore and Maharashtra at Rs 2,348 crore.
Out of the total cane dues payment of Rs 55,553 crore for 2017-18 season, Rs 41,654 crore has been cleared and Rs 13,899 crore is pending as on March 21, 2018. Liquidity position of mills has been affected due to downward trend in sugar prices in view of higher production in the 2017-18 marketing year. This has resulted in delay in cane payment to growers.
The mill owners are finding it difficult to pay the cane prices to the farmers on time due to decrease in sugar price. In order to stabilise domestic prices, the government has doubled import duty on sugar to 100%, scrapped the export duty and also imposed stock limits on sugar mills for two months. Sugar output is estimated to rise to 27.2 million tonnes (MT) in 2017-18, as against the demand of 25 MT.