The government should ensure that sugar is sold at rates fixed by the government
PESHAWAR: Prime Minister Imran Khan has set a great precedent by making the recent sugar inquiry report public. However, we have not seen any action take place thus far.
Authorities have brought to light the fact that six major groups were acting as cartels that had control of 51% of the total sugar supply. The report has made it clear that the sugar mill owners were under-reporting their profits and therefore did not need any subsidy for export, while at the same time committing corporate fraud by transferring money to their private company. Let it be clear that these acts are a serious violation of the Pakistan Penal Code. Therefore, the first thing to do is to recover the subsidy granted to the sugar barons during the past 20 years. Secondly, the mills should be asked to pay back all their taxes on undeclared production in one-year installments, using profits from their other businesses. And third, farmers who have still not been paid by these mills should be asked to register complaints with the cane commissioner in order to receive their due compensation.
But most importantly, the government should ensure that sugar is sold at rates fixed by the government. Citizens who purchase at higher rates should send an online complaint with a picture of the shop receipt so that the shop owners along with their sugar distributors could be fined by the food authorities. To achieve this, the government will have to devise new regulations and create a governing body.
Shahryar Khan Baseer
Published in The Express Tribune, June 2nd, 2020.
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