Govt extends moratorium period on Rs 15,000 crore soft loan to sugar mills

15 Nov 2019 Evaluate

The government has extended the moratorium period for repayments by six more months as the Rs 15,000 crore soft loan scheme for sugar mills is moving at a snail’s pace. Now, the moratorium period is one-and-a-half years. A moratorium period is a time during the loan term when the borrower is not required to make any repayment. The Centre had announced the loan package in two tranches - first in June 2018 amounting to Rs 4,440 crore and the other in March 2019 of Rs 10,540 crore. The objective was to help millers in clearing cane arrears and divert surplus sugar for ethanol manufacturing. A soft loan is a loan that is given at a subsidised interest rate.

Of 418 applications for the loan, the food ministry has found 282 eligible. Of this, 114 applications have been cleared for loans amounting to Rs 6,139.08 crore. However, banks have sanctioned the loan to 45 applicants and disbursed Rs 900 crore to 33 applicants till September-end. The soft loan package is being implemented by the food ministry, which provides a list of eligible loan applicants to banks for further process.

Presently, 3-4 lakh tonne of sugar gets diverted for ethanol making. With creation of additional capacity under the scheme, 9-10 lakh tonne of sugar is expected to be diverted for ethanol production. Sugar mills have supplied 175 crore litres of ethanol to oil marketing companies (OMCs) till October 22 of the 2018-19 season (October-September) and helped them achieve 5.2 per cent blending with petrol. The soft loan was announced to improve liquidity of mills, reduce sugar inventory and facilitate timely clearance of cane dues of farmers. However, cane arrear still remains high at Rs 9,000 crore so far this year based on the sugarcane price fixed by both the Centre and states.

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