Govt To Consider Cheaper Loans To Sugar Mills (05-Mar-2010)
The government will consider providing cheaper bank loans to the sugar mills, minister of state for finance minister Namo Narain Meena told parliament today.
The minister said that the proposal will be examined in consultation with the RBI.
India has been importing sugar in large quantities from Brazil at high prices in order to boost domestic supplies as output that declined 44 percent to 14.7 million tonnes in the year to September.
The trade body National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories Ltd had requested the finance ministry to allow the banks to provide loans to sugar firms at 9 percent interest rate, Meena said, which is below the current market rate of 11-14 percent.
Meanwhile, Food and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar stated that due to improved yields in key growing states, India's sugar output in the current season could rise by 16 million tonnes (MT).
The output is still much short of India's annual demand of 23 MT.
Sugar season runs from October to September.
He said that the productivity of sugarcane has boosted considerably in Karnataka and Gujarat along with the top 2 producers Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh.
He added that the government may revise upwards the sugar estimates after reports of higher cane yield from these states.
On the other hand, the government has estimated sugar output in the 2009-10 season (October-September) at 16 MT, against 14.7 MT in the previous season.
Moreover, India is the largest sugar consumer and is likely to produce as much as 23 million to 24 million tonnes (mt) by the end of 2010-11. According to the Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) farmers have increased planting to benefit from record prices.
Mr. MN Rao the deputy director general of the association said in an interview at an industry conference in Dubai that the production may total to 22 mt on a conservatives basis.
Comparing with the previous forecast he said that output this season may be 15.5 mt to 16 mt as based with the New Delhi association. Adding to it he also said that production won't fall below last year's 14.7 mt.
Top News Today
 Godrej Properties, Mumbai based real estate developer launched its new residential project Godrej Alpine in Mangalore. It aims to complete 499-apartment Godrej Alpine for occupation in 36 months. Godrej
 Mahindra & Mahindra, auto major has stopped the second phase of booking for its latest sports utility vehicle XUV500. It has received over 25,000 orders in a period of 10 days from January 25 to February
 Reliance Power, the Anil Ambani group company's 2,400-MW Samalkot plant in Andhra Pradesh is likely to be ready for electricity generation this fiscal. It will install six gas turbines at the plant having
|
International Stock News
 The US markets rose on Monday, sending the Dow industrials to their highest close since 2008, as Greece's government made progress on measures to secure international aid. Also, a Labor Department report
 The US markets made a mix closing on Thursday, as a drop in jobless claims fueled optimism about the economy and investors looked to the next day's employment report as the next indicator of the economic
 The US markets made a mixed closing on Tuesday, with the indices mostly slipping after US economic data failed to live up to expectation. The reports showed that American consumer confidence trailed estimates
|
|
Recent Commodity-Market News
|
|