The state cabinet on Thursday decided to waive the 5% sugarcane purchase tax for a year. The decision was taken as a relief measure for sugar factories that had claimed financial crisis before the beginning of the crushing season 2013-14.

The waiver of sugarcane purchase tax was a crucial demand made by MP and farmers' leaderRaju Shetty. "The waiver would offer Rs 130 per tonne to every sugar factory in the state. The factories should pass it on to farmers immediately. The input costs of farming have gone up because of the rising prices of fertilizers, pesticides, power tariffs and labour charges," Shetty said. He added while the sugar factories claim that they pay better price to farmers, most of the factories in Kolhapur and Sangli have announced the fair and remunerative price (FRP) defined by the Centre as the first installment.

"In most of the cases, the FRP is less than Rs 2,500 per tonne, whereas the agitation in the first week of December was suspended with a demand for Rs 2,650 per tonne as first installment, which can be paid by January. As the state government has waived the sugarcane purchase tax, the factories should start disbursing the remaining difference to farmers. Otherwise, they will have to face another agitation," Shetty added. (Times of India)