G-B assured of continued supply of wheat: minister

Former PML-Q government defaulted on payment to the corporation.

GILGIT: The Pakistan Agricultural Storage and Services Corporation (PASSCO) had assured the Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B) government that it will not suspend wheat supply to the region, even though the latter owes over Rs6 billion to the former, officials told The Express Tribune on Thursday.

“We have discussed the issue with the PASSCO chairman and the issue stands settled now,” said G-B Food Minister Mohammad Jaffar, when this reporter approached him on Thursday by phone in Lahore where he met with the PASSCO authorities to discuss the matter. He said that the supply of wheat to G-B had been stopped earlier by PASSCO as the region had failed to provide the outstanding amount of over Rs6 billion.

Jaffar who is also the Senior Minister in the G-B government, said last week the previous government of Pakistan Muslim Leaguer-Q (PML-Q) defaulted on the payment to the corporation. “We inherited this debt from the previous government,” he remarked.

The mountain region now receives more than 1.5 million bags of wheat on subsidised rates from the federal government to fulfil the requirements of over 2 million people living in seven districts.

Sources in the provincial government said that the minister’s recent meeting with the PASSCO chairman removed the deadlock over the supply of wheat to the region. They said that the chairman had asked the minister to make payment of the dues for ensuring smooth supply to the region.

At present, PASSCO has borrowed a bank loan to purchase wheat from farmers in Punjab and other parts of the country for G-B, the minister was told. “PASSCO has to pay almost Rs30,000 to the bank as the loan it has borrowed from them is due on G-B,” said the source, adding that the G-B government will have to seek additional grant from Islamabad to clear the PASSCO dues.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 14^th,  2011.