No subsidy on sugarcane this year, says Qaim

KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah has directed the provincial government’s Agriculture Department to work out an acceptable sugarcane price for the growers and millers because this year his government would not give any subsidy on sugarcane.
He said this while presiding over a meeting of the agriculture department on Tuesday to discuss the new sugarcane price and review overall cane crop.
Those who attended the meeting included Chief Secretary Siddique Memon, Principal Secretary to CM Alamuddin Bullo, Secretary of Agriculture Shahid Gulzar Shaikh, Secretary of Finance Sohail Rajpput and Cane Commissioner Agha Zaheer. Adviser to CM on Law, Murtaza Wahab, Secretary of Law, Mir Mohammad Shaikh, and Advocate-General Abdul Fattah Malik especially attended the meeting.
The chief minister said that last year there were differences between growers and millers on the issue of sugarcane price.
“This year I want you to settle this issue amicably. This time the Sindh government will not give any subsidy on its price,” he said categorically.
It is worth mentioning here that the Sindh government last year for the first time provided subsidy to the sugarcane growers while the government used to provide subsidy to wheat growers.
The government would, however, continue to fix the support price for sugarcane.
Meanwhile, the Secretary of Agriculture, Shahid Gulzar Shaikh, briefing the chief minister at the meeting, said the agriculture minister had held a meeting with the growers to ascertain the sugarcane price.
“We are still trying to work out an acceptable price for the growers as well as the millers,” he said.
Chief Secretary Siddique Memon said that there was a scientific method to calculate the sugarcane price.
According to available data, over eight kilograms of sugar is produced by crushing 100 kilograms of cane.
“We have to work out total expenditures of a mill on the production of one kilogram of sugar plus their 15 percent profit and then have to check the ex-mill price of one kilogram of sugar.
This calculation would help ascertain the sugar price most likely to be acceptable to both the parties,” he said. The chief minister directed the secretary of agriculture to keep close coordination with growers and millers and also check the sugarcane price in other provinces such as Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
“I would appreciate if sugar mills start crushing in time. Delay always causes loss to the growers and the millers equally,” he said.
Replying to a question from the chief minister, the secretary of agriculture said that last year sugarcane was grown over an area of 316,749 hectares while this year it had been recorded at 318,000 hectares.
“This shows an increase in growth in production and approximately yield would be around 18,858,672 tonnes,” he said.
It may be noted that there are 33 operational sugar mills in the province.
The chief minister said that there were some complaints that the subsidy given by the government had not trickled down to the growers completely.
On this, the secretary of agriculture said that about 98.9 percent amount or Rs3,857.114 million had been disbursed and the remaining amount of Rs48.686 million was to be given to 555 remaining growers, and added that last year the Sindh government had given a subsidy of Rs3989.8 million benefiting 41,047 growers.
The chief minister directed the agriculture department to personally monitor disbursement and ensure that the amount reached the genuine growers.