The Maharashtra Sugar Commissionerate has directed cooperative and nationalised banks in the state that provide mortgage loans to sugar mills to gather government dues by tagging sugar bags pledged with these banks in the crushing season of 2021-22. According to officials, these mills owe the government about Rs 3,600 crore till date.
The government in the previous stood in as guarantor for various mills for loans obtained from cooperative and nationalised banks. But this is not probable now as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and NABARD have stated mills with a damaging net disposable resource (NDR) can’t be provided loans by banks.
The government also offered share capital for cogeneration projects of some of the mills. Several mills had taken loans from the Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank (MSCB), Mumbai Bank and Nanded and Osmanabad District Central Cooperative Banks exactly where the government was the guarantor, and failed to repay. The government has, consequently, decided to recover these loans from the defaulter mills. A selection to this impact was taken at the current meeting of the group of ministers.
Shekhar Gaikwad, sugar commissioner, stated about 53 mills have been identified for defaulting on payments and a circular has been issued notifying banks to take note of this selection. Banks have been directed to deduct the quantity from sugar sales of the factories by tagging sugar bags at a price of Rs 50 per quintal and Rs 25 per quintal based on their cane payment history.
Sugar mills will be expected to submit a letter of assure to the sugar commissioner along with their crushing licence guaranteeing recovery of government dues by means of tagging, he stated.
The commissionerate has asked farmers to beware of the economic status of the mills just before supplying sugarcane to them. The commissionerate has ready a colour-coded list of mills based on their payment behaviour.