Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah was the Chief Guest at the Sugar Conclave ad National Efficiency Award ceremony organized by NFCSF.
While welcoming the chief guest, Harshvardhan Patil, President of NFCSF hailed Prime Minister Modi’s historic decision to establish a separate Ministry of Cooperation. He also profusely praised Shah for his dynamic leadership and unwavering support to the cooperative sugar industry.
In his welcome address, Patil praised the Government for increase in FRP which would help more than 5 crore sugarcane farmers and their families. However, he said that a higher FRP coupled with a static MSP is affecting the competitiveness and viability of sugar mills. The MSP of sugar was last increased to Rs. 31/kg in 2019 and has remained unchanged since then.
He urged Shah to intervene and raise both the MSP for sugar and the procurement price for ethanol produced from B-heavy molasses and sugarcane syrup.
During the event held on Saturday, Patil informed Shah about the federation’s initiative, in association with the private sugar industry ISMA, to develop a 10-year roadmap aimed at strengthening India’s sugar cooperatives. He requested a meeting with the Union Cooperation Minister for a detailed discussion on the draft roadmap.
Patil expressed his gratitude for the income tax relief of about Rs 10,000 crore given to sugar cooperatives to claim payments made to sugarcane farmers, as well as for the provision of working capital loans from the National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) to strengthen cooperative sugar mills.
He also called for the creation of a Price Stabilization Fund (PSF) to assist the sugar industry during market fluctuations, facilitate sugar exports, ensure timely payment of cane prices, and address other related issues.
In a lighter vain, Shah said that the Harshvardhan always demands and suggested the sugar industry to become dynamic rather than demanding.
