Punjab seeks Rs400 per 40kg rise in wheat price

Federal ministers express serious reservations over request

ISLAMABAD:

The Punjab cabinet has sent a summary to the Centre, seeking to fix the price of wheat at Rs2,200 per 40kg to match that being offered by Sindh, while the federal ministers have expressed serious reservations over the request.

Differences between the federal ministers regarding the wheat support price in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa have come to light. Sources said the lawmakers were of the view that an increase of Rs400 per 40kg in the wheat support price would be an “unusual raise”, saying the price of grain was fixed at Rs1,800 per 40kg last year.

Meanwhile, the summary of wheat support price sent by Punjab cabinet will be presented in the Economic Coordination Committee of the Cabinet (ECC). Prime Minister Imran Khan will mull over the ECC recommendations in the federal cabinet meeting and decide the matter after consultation in the next few days.

A wheat and flour crisis in the country is feared as the ECC in its last meeting had rejected the Punjab government’s recommendation for raising the minimum price of the commodity to check its smuggling.
Last year, Pakistan had imported wheat at a rate of around Rs2,700 per 40kg (including freight charges) whereas the local official rate was Rs1,800 for the same quantity.

Wheat prices in the world markets are on the rise because of the Russia-Ukraine war and have increased 11% in a week. Punjab had been allowed to increase the support price to Rs1,950, though the provincial authorities had sought that it should be enhanced to at least Rs2,200 per 40kg. But the ECC had not approved the request in its meeting held in Islamabad the other day.

Growers from Punjab see a wheat crisis when the crop will be harvested in April. They say that cultivators would tend to hoard the grain instead of selling it to the government at throwaway prices.