As per earlier practice, the purchasing agents were supposed to deposit only Rs1,000 as security with the sugar mill. Now, the government has made it mandatory for them to pay Rs10 million to the cane commissioner. PHOTO: FILE
LAHORE: The Punjab government has initiated steps for timely start of sugarcane crushing as well as payments to farmers during the upcoming harvesting season.
The crushing season usually starts on November 10 but for the past two years it was delayed for extended periods because sugar millers were reluctant to accept demands of the government.
This year, the Punjab government is determined to force sugar mill owners to start crushing by the first week of November.
“The basic aim of revision of rules by the provincial government is to ensure timely payments to the farmers in a transparent manner for sugarcane sale,” said Punjab Cane Commissioner Wajid Ali Shah.
He added that owing to the absence of regulations for sugarcane purchasing agents, there was no check on the purchase and sale of farmers’ produce. “Such informal and undocumented sale of sugarcane is detrimental to the interests of helpless growers,” he said.
Shah emphasised that the purchasing agents ran their business without following any rules because nothing was mandatory for creating a balance in sugarcane purchase.
“It is his (purchasing agent) will whether to issue a cane purchase receipt (CPR) to the farmers or not,” he pointed out. “Almost everything is out of the books - right from sugarcane purchase on behalf of sugar mills to sugar manufacturing and its storage for the commodity’s sale later.”
Shah added that these stocks were used to manipulate market forces, providing leverage to sugar mill owners for dictating their terms with the help of government subsidy either for exports or purchase by the government.
As per earlier practice, the purchasing agents were supposed to deposit only Rs1,000 as security to the sugar mill.
“Now, the government has made it mandatory for the purchasing agents to pay Rs10 million to the cane commissioner,” he revealed. “By introducing this condition, the government aims to check the worth of agents and it will also make payments possible to the farmers in case an agent defaults.”
More importantly, he added, according to government regulations, the purchasing agents were now liable to disburse all payments to the farmers through banks. By doing so, not only timely payments can be ensured but records of transactions will also be available digitally.
“Through these interventions, we will know the purchase quantity as well as prices and information about the seller, hence, the room for exploitation will be minimised,” he said. Amendments have been made in Rule 12 of the Punjab Sugar Factories Rules 1950.
The cane commissioner added that a meeting of the cane board had been scheduled for September 3 to streamline the issues relating to timely beginning of sugarcane crushing season.
“I have repeatedly asked sugar mill owners to sort out the issues they have with the government well before the deadline,” he said. “We will increase interaction with the mills for the purpose of ensuring implementation of rules in letter and spirit.”
The basic aim of such initiatives is to protect the interests of sugarcane growers. The present government has ensured the payment of more than 99.7% of past dues to the growers. “Earlier last month, the provincial government also approved an end to the reallocation policy for sugar mills in Punjab. The purpose of this policy is to protect the farmers,” Shah added.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 29th, 2019.
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