Punjab Govt likely to increase cane SAP by Rs 10 per quintal

The Punjab Government is expected to increase the State Agreed Price (SAP) of sugarcane by Rs 10 per quintal this year. The enhanced price will be announced after the end of the model code of conduct for the four Assembly byelections, it is learnt.

Last year, the state government had increased the SAP of sugarcane by Rs 11 per quintal, to Rs 391 per quintal. When the new SAP is announced, expected to be Rs 401 per quintal, it will be the third hike in cane prices announced by the AAP government since it came to power in March 2022.

Rs 9.5 cr dues pending with govt

Jangveer Singh Chauhan, general secretary of the Doaba Kisan Sangharsh Committee, said though all previous dues of the cane growers had been cleared by the government, it was yet to pay Rs 9.50 crore to farmers, who sold their produce to private sugar mills.

Since the private mills had expressed inability to pay the enhanced SAP of Rs 391 per quintal last year, the government had said it would pay a sum of Rs 55.50 per quintal to farmers selling cane to those mills. That amount was yet to be released, Chauhan said.

Since neighbouring Haryana has announced SAP of Rs 400 per quintal, the AAP government in Punjab is likely announce a rate that is marginally higher than Haryana to remain the highest SAP paying state. This year, the Centre has announced the Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) of Rs 340 per quintal.

Government sources said discussions on enhancing the cane SAP were held during a meeting of the Sugarcane Control Board last week. However, the announcement for the price increase would be made by CM Bhagwant Mann only later this month, after the end of model code of conduct on November 23.

Though sugarcane growers are insisting that the state government should seek permission from the Election Commission to announce the SAP, the state government has so far not sought the permission.

This year, the area under sugarcane has gone up marginally, from 95,000 hectares last year to 1 lakh hectares. As much as 700 lakh quintals of sugarcane is expected to be crushed this season. Punjab is expected to produce 62 lakh quintals of sugar this year.

With two of the nine cooperative sugar mills (at Batala and Gurdaspur) being upgraded, the crushing capacity of the cooperative sugar mills will go up to 210 lakh quintals this year, while 500 lakh quintal cane is expected to be crushed by the six private sugar mills. Last year, the nine cooperative sugar mills had crushed 195 lakh quintal cane.