The decision also means a blow to Chief Minister Amarinder Singh’s aide and former Cabinet minister Rana Gurjit Singh, who also owns a private sugar mill. (Express photo by Gajendra Yadav)
In a blow to private sugar mills in the state, the Punjab government will recover Rs 223.75 crore from these mills, four years after the government paid the sugarcane farmers on behalf of these mills during 2015-16 fiscal year.
The decision also means a blow to Chief Minister Amarinder Singh’s aide and former Cabinet minister Rana Gurjit Singh, who also owns a private sugar mill.
The go-ahead for recovery was given by the Punjab Cabinet on Wednesday. During the crushing year 2014-15, sugar mills were facing cash flow problems as the market price of sugar had touched Rs 2,600 per quintal. This had led to delayed start and delay in payment to cane growers. The state government had to step in with payment to the growers on behalf of the sugar mills. During the next fiscal year, when the sugar price reached Rs 3,000 per quintal, the sugar mills had refused to pay the state farmers. The government had chipped in to help out the farmers by paying them in two instalments of Rs 111 crore and Rs 112 crore. Later, the government had asked for the recovery of the money.
The sugar millers had then moved the High Court that had directed the state government to sort out the issue after hearing the private sugar mills.
The decision to recover that amount comes in the wake of the recommendations of the high-powered committee constituted under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary on November 13, 2017, in compliance with the orders of the Punjab & Haryana High Court. The other members of the committee were the then Additional Chief Secretary (Development), Viswajeet Khanna, Financial Commissioner (Excise & Taxation), M P Singh, Financial Commissioner (Cooperation) D P Reddy and Principal Secretary (Finance) Anirudh Tewari.
The committee, after hearing the private sugar mills, observed that Rs 50 per quintal was given as a temporary support, in a bid to alleviate the distress of the farmers. Since the basic principle behind the support was the low price of sugar in the market, once the average price had increased past Rs 3,000 per quintal, there was reason enough to recover the earlier amount from the mills, it said in its report submitted on April 11, 2018.