New Delhi, July 14: The government on Tuesday said as many as 206 sugar mills across the country are sick, with two major producing states of Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh accounting for over half of them.
co-operative sector, Minister of State for Agriculture K V Thomas said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.
While 63 mills in Maharashtra have been declared sick, 44 in Uttar Pradesh share the same fate, Thomas said. Tamil Nadu accounts for the closure of around 23 mills while Karnataka follows closely with 22.
“The main reasons for the closure/sickness of these mills are non-availability of adequate raw material, poor recovery from sugarcane, uneconomic size, lack of modernisation, high cost of working capital, declaration of high state advisory price of cane by some states (among others),” Thomas said.
Moreover, 153 sugar mills across states stopped functioning till March 31 of this season, ending September, the minister pointed out, adding that some of these units may start operation in the next season.
As many as 49 mills in Maharashtra and 27 in Uttar Pradesh stopped working during this period.
The closure of mills is again bad news on the sugar front as the output of the sweetener is projected to slump by over a million tonnes to 15.5 million tonnes in the 2008-09 season against the domestic demand of 22.5 million tonnes.
–Agencies–