Maharashtra government to offer counter-guarantees for sugar factory loans
04 Aug 2010
The Maharashtra government plans to offer counter guarantees to the tune of Rs300 crore for the pre-season and short-term loans of 34 non-functional co-operative sugar factories in the state during the 2010-11 crushing season starting from 1October, to ensure all available sugarcane is crushed.
Harshvardhan Patil, state minister for co-operation, disclosed this while addressing a news conference in Pune yesterday.
The sugarcane availability for the fresh crushing season is expected to touch 752.15 lakh tonnes which will yield 86.50 lakh tonnes of sugar in the 2010-11 crushing season.
The state government had recently held a meeting in Mumbai, under Patil's chairmanship, to discuss issues of sugarcane and the sugar industry.
The decision to offer a counter guarantee for the loans was taken at the meeting and on Tuesday the minister held another meeting with the managements of non-functional sugar factories in Pune.
In the 2009-10 crushing season, the sugar output of the state was 71.05 lakh tonnes which was much higher than the initial 48 lakh tonnes estimate given by the state federation of co-operative sugar factories.