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Mumbai: The cash-strapped state govt has allocated a sum of Rs 78.9 crore as interest and penalty on loans taken from the National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) for sugar factories linked mainly to leaders of the ruling BJP.
The sum was allocated in a govt resolution issued this week. Significantly, the resolution said that the NCDC asked for the interest payment of Rs 76 crore in July, but no financial provision was made for the payment. Hence, it now attracted an additional penalty of almost Rs 2.9 crores, raising the sum to Rs 78.9 crores. A provision for the payment was made in the winter session of the state assembly in Dec 2024.
The margin money loans worth Rs 549.5 crore were taken in July 2023 by the then Shinde govt from the NCDC for sugar factories controlled by BJP leaders, including Ranjitsinh Mohite-Patil, Harshvardhan Patil, Dhananjay Mahadik, Abhimanyu Pawar, and Raosaheb Danve. The NCDC loans are routed through the state govt, and it has to stand guarantee for the loans. Hence, these loans add to the liabilities of the state.
Just last week, the Mahayuti govt sent another proposal to the NCDC to extend loans worth Rs 1104.6 crores to 9 cooperative sugar factories, most of which are linked to the ruling parties in the Mahayuti alliance.
Cooperative sugar factories are closely linked to the rural economy and a network of farmers, a reason why they are politically significant. However, the state faces a staggering debt of over Rs 7.8 lakh crores owing to sops announced in the pre-poll budget.
Indeed, in the run-up to the polls, the state finance department said the state’s fiscal deficit was around Rs 2 lakh crores and would not be possible to fill. The state’s Mukhya Mantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana, which provides a stipend of Rs 1500 per month to underprivileged women alone, has an annual bill of Rs 46,000 crore.
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