Sugar Development Fund (Amendment) Act, 20081
| [Act 4 of 2008] | [24th March, 2008] |
[Repealed by Act 19 of 2015*]
An Act further to amend the Sugar Development Fund Act, 1982 and the Sugar Cess Act, 1982
Be it enacted by Parliament in the Fifty-ninth Year of the Republic of India as follows:-
1 Received the assent of the President on 24-3-2008 and published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part II, Section 1, dated 24-3-2008..
* Ed.: Act 4 of 2008 repealed by Act 19 of 2015, S. 2 & Sch. I. See also S. 4 of the Repealing and Amending Act, 2015:
"4. Savings.- The repeal by this Act of any enactment shall not affect any Act in which such enactment has been applied, incorporated or referred to;
and this Act shall not affect the validity, invalidity, effect or consequences of anything already done or suffered, or any right, title, obligation or liability already acquired, accrued or incurred, or any remedy or proceeding in respect thereof, or any release or discharge of or from any debt, penalty, obligation, liability, claim or demand, or any indemnity already granted, or the proof of any past act or thing;
nor shall this Act affect any principle or rule of law, or established jurisdiction, form or course of pleading, practice or procedure, or existing usage, custom, privilege, restriction, exemption, office or appointment, notwithstanding that the same respectively may have been in any manner affirmed, recognised or derived by, in or from any enactment hereby repealed;
nor shall the repeal by this Act of any enactment provide or restore any jurisdiction, office, custom, liability, right, title, privilege, restriction, exemption, usage, practice, procedure or other matter or thing not now existing or in force."
Prefatory Note-Statement of Objects and Reasons.-The Sugar Development Fund Act, 1982 was enacted to provide for financing the activities for development of sugar industry and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto. Section 4(1) of the said Act provides the purposes for which the Sugar Development Fund shall be applied by the Central Government. The existing provisions do not specifically provide for payment of interest subvention from the Sugar Development Fund on loans given to sugar factories by banks or financial institutions.
2. The Government has approved a scheme in December 2007 to provide loans for sugar factories from banks on the basis of excise duty paid and payable in 2006-07 and 2007-08 sugar seasons on production of sugar, with full interest subvention up to maximum of twelve per cent per annum, out of which five per cent of the interest subvention would be provided through budgetary support from the Central Government and the rest seven per cent from the Sugar Development Fund to utilise the loan proceeds for payment of sugarcane arrears of 2006-07 and sugarcane dues of 2007-2008 sugar season (October-September). Claims for interest subvention were expected to be received from February 2008 itself. Therefore, the provisions of the said section needed to be amended.
3. The Sugar Cess Act, 1982 was enacted to provide for imposing cess on sugar for development of sugar industry and for matters connected therewith. Section 3(1) of the said Act as amended from time to time, provides for a cess on sugar at rates not exceeding Rupees Fifteen per quintal of sugar. The main source of funds for the Sugar Development Fund is by way of collection of cess on sugar. As per the estimates of the receipts into and disbursements from the Sugar Development Fund in the next about one year and two months, that is, up to March, 2009, there will not be insufficient funds in the Sugar Development Fund to meet the expected expenditure on account of interest subvention. In order to improve the accretion in to the said Fund to meet the requirements of the various schemes approved by the Government and to ensure that sufficient fund is available for carrying out other purposes of the Act, there was immediate need to amend the said section to empower the Central Government to increase the cess from the present rate of Rupees Fifteen per quintal of sugar to Rupees Twenty-five per quintal and it will specify the increase in cess as per requirement of funds from time to time.
4. Accordingly, the Sugar Development Fund (Amendment) Ordinance, 2008 was promulgated by the President on the 5th February, 2008. The Ordinance provides as follows:-
(i) amendment of sub-section (1) of Section 4 of the Sugar Development Fund Act, 1982 by inserting a new clause (bbbb) for defraying expenditure for the purpose of financial assistance to sugar factories towards interest on loans given in terms of any scheme approved by the Central Government from time to time;
(ii) amendment of sub-section (1) of Section 3 of the Sugar Cess Act, 1982 to increase the sugar cess from fifteen rupees to twenty-five rupees and to omit the proviso to the said sub-section as it becomes redundant.
5. The Bill seeks to replace the aforesaid Ordinance.
1. Short title and commencement.-(1) This Act may be called the Sugar Development Fund (Amendment) Act, 2008.
(2) It shall be deemed to have come into force on the 5th day of February, 2008.
2. Amendment of Section 4.-In the Sugar Development Fund Act, 1982 (4 of 1982), in Section 4, in sub-section (1), after clause (bbb), the following clause shall be inserted, namely:-
"(bbbb) for defraying expenditure for the purpose of financial assistance to sugar factories towards interest on loans given in terms of any scheme approved by the Central Government from time to time.".
3. Amendment of Section 3.-In the Sugar Cess Act, 1982 (3 of 1982), in Section 3, in sub-section (1),-
(a) for the words "fifteen rupees", the words "twenty-five rupees" shall be substituted;
(b) the proviso shall be omitted.
4. Repeal and saving.-(1) The Sugar Development Fund (Amendment) Ordinance, 2008 (Ord. 4 of 2008), is hereby repealed.
(2) Notwithstanding such repeal, anything done or any action taken under the Sugar Development Fund Act, 1982 (4 of 1982) and the Sugar Cess Act, 1982 (3 of 1982) as amended by the said Ordinance, shall be deemed to have been done or taken under the said Acts, as amended by this Act.