Wheat, sugar prices skyrocket despite subsidy

Food officers are directed to ensure monitoring of flour mills

LAHORE:

Though the illegal nexuses of sugar and flour millers have been exposed through inquiry reports, the government has failed to rein in sugar and flour prices.

On the other hand, Naanbais (bread makers) are demanding an increase in naan and roti prices owing to an increase in flour price.

Senior Punjab Minister for Food Abdul Aleem Khan, on Monday, taunted the Sindh government to set aside its difference and show mercy to people of Sindh. He advised the Sindh government to follow footsteps of Punjab and the K-P governments and provide wheat to flour mills at subsidised rates to bring down wheat flour price.

He highlighted that wheat flour was available across Punjab at Rs860 per 20-kilogramme sack while the same is sold for Rs1,200 in Sindh. However, in several areas of South Punjab, it is being sold above Rs1,000 owing to the inefficiency of the price control mechanism and bad governance.

On Tuesday, he directed district officers of the food department across the province to ensure strict monitoring of flour mills in their respective areas so that the officially released wheat does not go to provinces other than Punjab and all the subsidised flour should be provided in the market.

He warned that if the officers of the food department showed negligence, stern action would be taken against them without any discrimination.

He said the Punjab government was giving a huge subsidy of billions of rupees for low price flour which should directly benefit the common man. Prime Minister Imran Khan is personally aware of the situation of wheat and flour in Punjab from time to time and no negligence will be tolerated in this regard.

He directed the food officers of border districts including Attock and Rahim Yar Khan to keep a close watch on flour smuggling to other provinces. He said that he would not allow anybody to purchase the flour of the Punjab government and sell it at high prices in other provinces.

The provincial government is heavily subsidising wheat but it is unable to resolve the issue completely. The official support price for the current wheat crop was Rs1,400 per maund and Punjab Food Department is releasing the same to flour mills at Rs1,450, while it is being traded at an unprecedented price of Rs2,100 to Rs2,300 per maund in the open markets. This great distortion in the government and open market rates is providing opportunity to flour millers and traders an opportunity to exploit the situation.

As the prices of wheat products are continuously showing upward trends, naanbais are demanding increase in rates or bringing down prices of fine flour. The government has recently increased roti and naan prices in the province following an increase in wheat rates.

All-Punjab Muthida Naan Roti Association Senior Vice President Waheed Abbasi told The Express Tribune that the association has already given call for a sit-in at D-Chowk in Islamabad on August 10. The government had fixed naan price at Rs15 when 84-kg fine flour sack was being sold below Rs4,000.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 5^th, 2020.