UP sugar mills are burdened with cane arrears of 3500 crore, the state government has slapped additional interest penalty of 227 crore over their failure to settle dues with farmers within the stipulated period during the current 2016-17 season. Mills are mandated to settle dues within 14 days of the purchase of crop at the factory gates to avoid interest payment liability of 15%, going by the rules of state advised price of cane. Of the total interest payables, payment of about 1.76 crore has already been realised from three sugar mills in western UP. State Advised Price is the cane price to be paid by state mills as against the fair and remunerative price (FRP), which is fixed by the Centre as the panIndia base price for cane procurement.