Sugar mills: energy, cost audits in a few weeks

The state government, which had earlier this year decided to make energy and cost audits mandatory for co-operative sugar mills in Maharashtra, has finalised a panel for the task which is expected to cut manufacturing cost and make sugar industry more energy efficient.

"The government has been working on this for the last five to six months and a panel of some 25 cost auditors and 30 energy auditors has been finalised for the task. This could bring in efficiency and save crores of rupees for the industry," said Vijay Singhal, State Sugar Commissioner at an Idea Exchange by The Indian Express.

"The cost of manufacturing sugar needs to be reduced and once the cost audit is done for individual factories, they would know the extra expenditure and can take steps to trim it. The energy audit will help factories plan and utilise energy reserves and cut down on manufacturing cost. These audits are expected to begin in a few weeks," he said.

The Sugar Commissioner said that he was not aware if similar audits were being conducted by sugar mills in other states.

Singhal said the government in a bid to make sure no sugar mill makes any loss, is bringing in several measures including energy and cost audits, continuous and concurrent audits and e-sale of sugar. Mills in the state will be categorised by their balance sheets (A,B,C and D categories) and future funding will be decided on this, he said.

Information on sugar sold by mills will now have to be uploaded online to bring in transparency, he said. Factories will have their own websites in 8-10 months and will be linked to the commissonerate. The commissionerate has directed mills to upload their balancesheets online to ensure transparency, he said.

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