Islamabad / Lahore:
The government and the sugar industry have concluded an agreement, fixing the price of ex-moulins to RS165 on Monday, the Ministry of National Food Security and Research announced on Monday.
“All provincial governments will guarantee the availability of cheap sugar to the public in light of this decision,” said a brief statement published by the ministry.
Last week, the PML-N managed the federal government approved the importation of half a million tonnes of sugar in order to maintain the affordable prices of the goods.
“The committee has approved the importation of up to 500,000 tonnes of sugar to ensure a stable offer and maintain affordable prices nationally,” said a statement published on X.
In March, Vice-Prime Minister Ishaq Dar noted that retail prices should not exceed RS164 after the Pakistan Competition Commission (CCC) warned sweets against price manipulation.
Dar said that according to reports, there was a peak in the prices of sugar at Rs178-179, which, he said, was “obviously not tolerable” for the Prime Minister.
In Lahore, sugar is currently sold at arbitrary prices, going between RS190 to Rs210 per kg. Citizens complain that sugar is available nowhere in the city at the official rate – RS180 per kg.
Since last Friday, Sugar Mills of Sindh and Punjab has interrupted the sugar supply to the markets, said the pregnancy president of the association of grocers Rauf Ibrahim.
He said that with an offer suspended in the last four days, only the stored sugar is currently sold in Karachi, which puts the wholesale prices from RS178–180 to RS182 per kg and the retail prices of RS190–195 to Rs200 per kg.
Ibrahim criticized the government’s lack of interest to repress the owners of sweets and hobby, warning that this negligence feeds price increases.
According to sources, collusion among sweets of sweets is the deep cause behind the price increase. This powerful cartel has historically put pressure on the government to allow exports under the cover of excess stocks, which increases the interior prices.
Between 2015 and 2020, 2,355 million tonnes of sugar would have been exported to Afghanistan. However, data from the Afghan government confirm that 1.5 million tonnes have been received. 778,000 metric tonnes were introduced in smuggling, without files found for this volume.
In recent years, 26 mills have benefited from billions of grants to export 400,000 metric tonnes of sugar. Documents show that sweets extracted 4.12 billion grants from grants until 2021.
In March, the price was set at RS140 per kg. After exporting 750,000 tonnes, it went to Rs170 per kg. The government then increased RS20’s ex-moulin price, but Sugar crossed RS200 / kg on the markets. In response, the government has decided to import 500,000 tonnes of sugar.
However, the conditions of the post-2017 IMF have prohibited subsidies in sugar exports. The government is now unable to subsidize the industry or set minimum prices for sugar cane, as the IMF requires complete deregulation in the sugar sector.
