SAP shall prevail in the sugar sector, says Tulsian

The Supreme Court has directed private sugar mill owners to pay farmers at the special advisory price fixed by state governments. UP private sugar mill owners will have to pay approximately Rs 1,000 crore. This is one case that the sugar cane farmers in the area have really lost. They had appealed to pay lower than this because of the problems they face and because of the unrealistically high state advised price (SAP), but this has not been held up by the Supreme Court. SP Tulsian of sptulsian.com spoke to CNBC-TV18 about his take on the situation.

Below is the edited transcript of the interview. Also watch the accompanying video. Q: How deep is the cut going to be?
A: I am not aware about the year for which this direction has been given. If you go by past judgments given by the Supreme Court division bench, they have upped the power of state governments to declare and fix SAP. Q: I believe it is for the year 2006-2008. My sense is this is with reference to that period?
A: This is pertaining to the old period and the mills have been quite hopeful that they are going to get some relief. They have gone to court for current year as well because current year SAP of Rs 245 per quintal is also very high.
In my view, there is more or less no divisional judgment of Supreme Court already existing. I don