Belgum: A day after Chief Minister Siddaramaiah succeeded in persuading sugarcane farmers to call off their agitation, owners of sugar mills launched a legal battle by moving the high court on the minimum support price fixed by the government.
The South Indian Sugar Mills Association (SISMA) of Karnataka filed a writ petition in the high court, describing the government’s decision to fix the price as unlawful and unfair. SISMA has also contended that sugar mills would not be able to pay the price fixed by the government as the global sugar market was in doldrums. Besides, the government has no power to fix the price under section 4 (F) of the Sugar Act, 2013.
Sources in SISMA said the writ petition would come up for hearing on December 11. On November 11, the directorate in its notification said the state advisory price (SAP) has been fixed based on factors such as production of sugar by mills for the year 2013-14, waiver of sugar purchase tax, waiver of road tax and VAT on sugar, primary byproducts of sugar industry, etc.
As per government guidelines, the mills would also have to bear the price of harvesting sugar cane in south Karnataka, or an additional burden of Rs 600 to Rs 700 per tonne besides forking out Rs 2,500 per tonne to farmers.
The sources said the owners of sugar mills are expected to refer to sugarcane crisis prevailing in Uttar Pradesh where the government and factories are yet to pay a whopping Rs 2,400 crore in arrears to farmers of that state.
“The crisis in Karnataka is not at all serious when compared to that in UP as the total arrears which factories owe to farmers here is only Rs 36 crore. Due to a serious crisis in UP, none of the factories were functioning till Monday, and started functioning only Tuesday due to an intervention by the UP government,” the sources added. Several sugar mills in north Karnataka have expressed their inability to pay the price fixed by the government.
