Pawar announces sugar package prior to EC nod

NEW DELHI: Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar on Tuesday announced a Rs 850-crore sugar relief package, which holds the potential of appeasing the powerful sugar lobby in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh, without waiting for a clearance from the Election Commission.

The announcement of the package, made to the media in Pune even as the proposal is pending with Nirvachan Sadan for clearance, may not go down well with the commission which may view Mr Pawar’s action as a violation of the model code of conduct. The proposal was sent by the agriculture ministry to the Election Commission only on Monday. At the time Mr Pawar made the Rs 850-crore relief package public in Pune, the EC was still studying the proposal. According to sources in the EC, a decision on whether or not the Centre could go ahead with the announcement of the sugar package may be taken only on Wednesday or Thursday. However, Mr Pawar seemed to have done his calculations before going ahead with the announcement.

The political dividends that may accrue to the ruling side at the Centre — what with the components of the alliance desperately seeking a share in the electoral pie — may far outweigh the drawbacks of a stricture by the EC. In any case, the commission cannot go beyond passing strictures for violation of the model code of conduct — the law gives it no punitive powers against violators. The pre-poll sugar package is aimed at cutting into the votebank of rivals, who are also banking on the powerful sugar lobby to corner crucial seats.

Mr Pawar told reporters in Pune that the centre had approved export of sugar and would share expenditure to the tune of Rs 850 crore towards the transport costs of shipments. The centre would bear an expenditure of Rs 1,300 per tonne for sugar to be exported by coastal states and Rs 1,400 for states away from the coast, said the minister. This means that a sugar farmer in UP would get help to the extent of Rs 1,400 per tonne of sugar to be exported.

A decision on the Rs 850-crore sugar package was taken at the meeting of Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on March 24. But the government approached the EC on Monday for clearance to announce the package in view of the model code of conduct for assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, the country’s largest producer of sugar.

Predicting that sugar production this year would be about 250 lakh tonnes, Mr Pawar told mediapersons in Pune that going by the domestic demand of 190 lakh tonnes, India would have a surplus of the commodity. A series of steps that included creating a buffer stock of 20 lakh tonnes were cleared by the CCEA with the obvious objective of helping both the millers and cane producers.