UP sugarcane outstanding piles up to Rs.96 bln; production at record 9 MMT.

Uttar Pradesh has clocked record sugar production of almost 9 million tonnes (mt) in the ongoing crushing season even as sugarcane arrears have piled up to Rs 96 billion. So far, the collective payment liabilities of all the 119 sugar mills in UP have added up to a little over Rs 267 billion, against which mills had paid nearly Rs 171 billion, thus leaving a massive Rs 96 billion as dues. This means almost 36 per cent of total dues is arrears with the mills, majority of which belong to private sector at 94. The sugar output of 9 mt has already breached the full season sugar production of about 8.75 mt registered during 2016-17. Since the mills have been provided with a window of 14 days to clear dues, the actual arrears are pegged at a lower level of Rs 70 billion. However, given the slow pace of payments and incremental piling up of arrears over the past weeks, the level of arrears is bound to increase further and expected to end up at a much higher level at the end of the crushing season.