Unprecedented growth in auto sector, NA told

Parliamentary Secretary for Industries and Production Aliya Hamza on Friday told the National Assembly that the auto sector was witnessing unprecedented growth.

Responding to a question during Question Hour of the National Assembly session, chaired by Speaker Asad Qaiser, the parliamentary secretary said 21 new entrants had made their way into the country's auto market.

The cement export has also increased by 64 per cent over the last three years, Aliya added.

Sharing details, she said the price of cement increased by 19.62% during the tenure of the incumbent government due to a significant increase in the prices of coal in the international market.

To another question, she informed that the Utility Stores Corporation of Pakistan is getting subsidy since January 8, 2020.

The decision is part of the government’s measures to protect vulnerable families from rising sugar prices, the secretary said.

According to Aliya, over 1,200 utility outlets are currently operating across the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) province.

Read More: Unstoppable sugar prices

Parliamentary Secretary for National Food Security Ameer Sultan told the house that the government had launched programmes to enhance local production of oilseeds. “Currently, $2.75 billion is being spent on the import of oilseeds and the execution of these programmes will help us cut this import bill by $600 million by 2024.”

He said several endeavours are being made for the pulses project funded under the PSDP to achieve self-sufficiency in lentils. At present, he said, lentil is cultivated on 3,000 hectares in Tank. High-quality seedy has been supplied in the area so that better yield and production could be fetched.

He said some areas of Balochistan have also been identified as provincial hubs for lentil production.

Later, during the Question Hour, details of sugar reserves in the country and prices thereof were also presented as per the directives of the chair of the session.

It was told that there were currently 635,000 metric tons of sugar. However, the country would require 485,000 metric tons of sugar by the end of this month. Therefore, to meet the demand and stabilise the prices, the government would begin sugarcane crushing from November 15.