With an aim to reach out to the farmers and workers in the eastern and north eastern regions particularly in West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Meghalaya and Tripura, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved that 100 per cent of the food grains and 20 per cent of the sugar shall be mandatorily packed in diversified jute bags.
The decision is important considering that the jute industry is predominantly dependent on government sector which purchases jute bags of value of more than Rs 7,500 crore every year for packing food grains. This is done in order to sustain the core demand for the jute sector and to support the livelihood of the workers and farmers dependent on the sector.
The latest decision will have its impact on poll-bound states like West Bengal, Assam and Bihar where BJP is fighting the electoral battle to emerge as the top player and even form the government. The elections are on in Bihar, while they are due in West Bengal and Assam next year.
“The decision to pack sugar in diversified jute bags will give an impetus to the diversification of the jute industry. Further, the decision also mandates that initially 10 per cent of the indents of jute bags for packing food grains would be placed through reverse auction on the Gem portal. This will gradually usher in a regime of price discovery. The government has expanded the scope of mandatory packaging norms under the Jute Packaging Material (JPM) Act, 1987,” the government statement said.
Nearly 3.7 lakh workers and several lakh farm families are dependent for their livelihood on the jute sectors.
Under the Jute Packaging Materials (Compulsory use in Packing Commodities) Act, 1987, the government is required to consider and provide for the compulsory use of jute packaging material in the supply and distribution of certain commodities in the interest of production of raw jute and jute packaging material. The reservation norms in present proposal would further the interest of domestic production of raw jute and jute packaging material in India, thereby, making India self-reliant in consonance with Aatma Nirbhar Bharat, officials said.
In another key decision, the CCEA also approved increase in ethanol price derived from different sugarcane based raw materials under the Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) programme.
The price of ethanol from C heavy molasses route will be increased from Rs 43.75 per lit to Rs.45.69 per litre, the price of ethanol from B heavy molasses route will be increased from Rs 54.27 per lit to Rs 57.61 per litre, the price of ethanol from sugarcane juice / sugar / sugar syrup route will be increased from Rs.59.48 per lit to Rs.62.65 per litre.
This will help all distilleries and also large number of them are expected to supply ethanol for the EBP programme. “Remunerative price to ethanol suppliers will help in reduction of cane farmer’s arrears, in the process contributing to minimizing difficulty of sugarcane farmers,” the official statement said.
The government has been implementing EBP programme wherein oil marketing companies sell petrol blended with ethanol up to 10 per cent. This programme has been extended to whole of India except Union Territories of Andaman Nicobar and Lakshadweep islands to promote the use of alternative and environment friendly fuels. This intervention also seeks to reduce import dependence for energy requirements and give boost to agriculture sector.
As the consistent surplus of sugar production is depressing sugar price, which has led to increase in sugarcane farmer’s dues due to lower capability of sugar industry to pay the farmers. The current move may help in easing situation to some extent.
