Fadnavis cabinet okays soft loans for sugar mills, cell to audit welfare schemes
Maharashtra cabinet approves soft loans for cooperative sugar mills to clear cane FRP dues and sets up Maha-TAC to audit government schemes.
The Maharashtra cabinet, meeting on Tuesday under Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, took seven major decisions concerning sugarcane farmers, sugar mills and citizens. The most significant was a decision to give soft loans to cooperative sugar mills so that outstanding FRP (Fair and Remunerative Price) dues for the 2025-26 season can reach farmers.
The government will give this soft loan to help cooperative sugar mills financially. The money will be used to clear the outstanding FRP for the 2025-26 crushing season as well as to smoothly complete preparations for the coming 2026-27 season.
In the 2025-26 season, 210 sugar mills in the state crushed a total of 1,045.63 lakh metric tonnes of sugarcane. In return, farmers were to be paid a total of Rs 40,446 crore as FRP. By June 15, Rs 40,050 crore of this, or 99.02 percent, had already been paid to farmers. By June 30, this amount had risen to Rs 40,148 crore, meaning 99.26 percent of the total FRP had been paid to farmers.
The cabinet's second major decision addressed the fact that while large sums are spent on government schemes every year, there has so far been no proper way to check how much benefit actually reaches citizens. To assess this, the cabinet approved setting up the "Maharashtra Technical Assistance Cell", or "Maha-TAC". This work will be carried out with the cooperation of the Indian Institute of Management, Mumbai, and the Centre for Research in Schemes and Policies. Under this, 25 major government schemes and 25 important policies will be studied. Notably, the study will not only examine government documents but will also gather information by talking directly to people who have benefited from these schemes.
The cabinet also took a few other decisions. The Nashik branch of the Maharashtra Sahitya Parishad has been given exemption from stamp duty on the registration of a lease agreement for a study room and library, a decision that applies to a building of the Nashik Municipal Corporation.
The Arvi Nagar Parishad in Wardha district has also been approved to receive 6,240.30 square metres of government land free of cost to build a traders' complex.
In addition, amendments will be made to the Maharashtra Municipal Councils, Nagar Panchayats and Industrial Townships Act, 1965.
