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Five Sugar Mills Fail to Settle Dues of Farmers

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Five Sugar Mills Fail to Settle Dues of Farmers
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January 5: Five sugar mills are yet to pay their dues to the sugarcane farmers despite an understanding to settle the dues. According to the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies, Himalaya Sugar Mill, Shri Ram Sugar Mill, Lumbini Sugar Mill, Annapurna Sugar Mill and Indira Sugar Mill are yet to pay Rs 87 million to the farmers. 

Commerce Secretary Dinesh Bhattarai informed that the ministry has written separate letters to the ministries of land management, home affairs and finance to block the bank accounts and land of the defaulting industries for their failure to pay the long-standing dues to the farmers.

At a meeting of the Public Accounts Committee under the House of Representatives, Secretary Bhattarai said that they were taking initiative to get the dues of the sugarcane farmers. He informed that the number of sugarcane farmers has declined and the industries has also come down from 29 to 8 due to the failure of industries to pay the farmers.

During the committee meeting, the MPs sharply criticized the government for not being sensitive towards the problems of the sugarcane farmers.

During the discussion, Revenue Secretary Krishna Hari Pushkar said that despite discussions regarding the removal of VAT on sugar since a long time, an immediate decision cannot be taken. He said that although discussions were held to include the issue in the budget replacement bill, preparations were not enough to take this measure immediately.

Agriculture Secretary Govind Sharma said that a proposal has been sent to the Council of Ministers to fix the support price of sugarcane and that a decision regarding this issue will be taken on Wednesday, January 5.

The MPs drew the attention of the government that the sugarcane farmers have not yet received the amount for selling sugarcane to the sugar mills. The parliamentary committee pointed out that the directives given on the issues of sugarcane farmers have not been followed as well.

Farmers claim that they still are yet to receive Rs 87 million from the sugar mills. In the meeting, MP Dharmashila Chapagain complained that the directive given by the Public Accounts Committee in 2018 regarding pricing of sugarcane has not been implemented yet and this issue has to be discussed time and again.

MP of Nepali Congress, Rajendra KC said that farmers would be discouraged towards sugarcane cultivation as there are still problems in payment of sugarcane. He said that the government should also give an answer as to why the number of sugar industries has dropped from 29 to 8.

 

 

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