Flour mill owners oppose govt’s inexpensive Ramazan package

They demanded the govt to reduce prices of other commodities instead of selling inexpensive flour in Ramazan bazaars

LAHORE: Objecting to the government’s Ramazan package – an initiative through which people will be able to purchase flour at inexpensive rates during the holy month – flour mill owners across Punjab have termed the move “unprofitable.” To this end, mill owners have recommended that instead of spending billions of rupees toward the provision of subsidised flour in Ramazan bazaars, the government should spend the same amount in further reducing the prices of vegetables, fruits and other commodities.

Mill owners have demanded that if the government is adamant on providing inexpensive flour during Ramazan, it should ensure a transparent and structured system so that none of the governmental departments or provincial ministers would be able to level baseless allegations on the flour milling industry by tampering the statistics and hiding the realities.

Last year, the Punjab government had offered inexpensive flour as part of the Ramazan package, but it had also allowed mill owners to simultaneously sell the flour at regular prices in the open market. The cost of a 10-kilogramme (kg) flour bag was fixed at Rs290 at the Ramazan bazaars.

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Sources said that 86,000 tonnes of government wheat were provided to mill owners to ensure the availability of inexpensive flour in the Ramadan bazaars throughout the month. Under the scheme, 69,00,000 flour bags, each weighing 10kg, were sold.

According to mill owners, most people believe that the subsidised flour was part of the government’s Zakat scheme, hence, they avoided purchasing it.

This is not the first time that mill owners have criticised the government’s move to introduce Ramazan packages. The same happened last year, as tensions between the Punjab minister for industry and the flour mill owners had escalated on various affairs. Both the parties also held press conferences against each other.

According to mill owners, the provincial minister of Punjab for industries, commerce and investment, Mian Aslam Iqbal has been trying to take the credit of saving more than Rs7 billion last year in the lieu of inexpensive flour which had been hit with corruption in the past. The market and government department sources, however, have rejected mill owners’ claim.

“We believe that the government, instead of including subsidised flour in the Ramazan package, should spend the amount on further reducing the prices of vegetables, fruits and lentils, while also increasing their supplies in the Ramazan bazaars,” the central chairman of the Pakistan Flour Mills Association (PFMA) Asim Raza Ahmed and central leader Mian Riaz told The Express Tribune.

They also mentioned the acute shortage of lemons in the Ramazan bazaars last year, which left the masses troubled.

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“This year, the month of Ramazan is commencing at a time when the new yield of wheat will become available in the market, hence, we will recommend the government not to spend money on subsidised flour but boost the supply of various essential items instead.”

Asim Raza Ahmed and Mian Riaz added that the PFMA will support the government if it still wants to introduce the inexpensive flour scheme, however, a few conditions will apply.

“Apart from ensuring a transparent system, we also request the government to make such arrangements that no department or government dignitary can use the subsidised flour as part of the Ramazan package,” they said.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 12^th, 2020.