Prithvi Sah, secretary of the Parsa Sugarcane Producers' Association, said that this year, the sugarcane transportation fee from Parsa to the industry in Bara is Rs 80 per quintal.
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Sugarcane farmers have complained that the Bara-based Reliance Sugar Mill is cheating farmers by charging them high rates for transporting sugarcane.
Prithvi Sah, secretary of the Sugarcane Producers' Farmers' Association, Parsa, said that this year the sugarcane transportation fare from Parsa to the factory in Bara is being charged by the industry at Rs 80 per quintal.
Last year, the fare was Rs 65 per quintal, but this year it has been increased by Rs 15 at once, killing farmers. 'The industry management has been doing this by setting up its own transport contractor,' he said. 'When we found out, the industry management gives Rs 67 out of Rs 80 to the transporter, and keeps the remaining Rs 13.'
He said that Reliance is only killing farmers at its own discretion when the Baba Baijunath Sugar Mill in Rautahat is not operating in Parsa this year. Sah said that when talking to the industry management, they are also told that 13 percent value added tax will be levied on the transportation fare. ‘It is acceptable to deduct TDS up to 2 percent on transportation,’ he said, ‘How fair is it to add 13 percent value added tax?’
He said that Reliance has been issuing sugarcane challans in Parsa since Mangsir 29 this year and has started sugarcane crushing since Poush 3. But he said that the industry has not operated the cane in Parsa and that not a single employee or JTA is stationed at the industry’s purchase center in Pokhariya, Parsa, so they have been hit even harder. Sah said that sugarcane is cultivated on 3,300 bighas in Parsa this year and the industry will get 700,000 quintals of sugarcane from here.
He said that the association submitted a memorandum to Chief District Officer Bhola Dahal a month ago protesting this wrongdoing by Reliance and the illegal tax being collected from sugarcane farmers’ vehicles on the roads of Parsa district, but there was no solution.
Asarfi Sah, president of the Sugarcane Producers Farmers Association of Parsa, said that Reliance Sugar is only creating confusion by not paying the 15 paise per quintal that has been given to the association since 2074 BS. 'The association uses this money to run and manage the association's office, fill dirt on unpaved roads, etc.,' he said, 'but Reliance's management has been doing a great injustice to the association by withholding this amount for a decade.'
Chief District Officer Dahal said that he was trying to resolve the problem by calling the industry management and holding discussions with the farmers. Reliance Sugar Mill Managing Director Rajkumar Agrawal insisted that there was no truth in the farmers' allegations. He claimed that the transportation fare was charged from the farmers at the same rate as last year. He said that the industry aims to crush sugarcane by April 15 this year. He said that the industry has so far crushed about one million tons of sugarcane and plans to crush three million tons of sugarcane this year.
