Rs35b set aside for flour subsidy

K-P increases wheat procurement target to 1.4 million metric tons

PESHAWAR:

Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) government has allocated Rs35 billion in the budget for the financial year 2022-23 for the provision of subsidized flour.

This was disclosed by K-P Chief Secretary Dr Shahzad Khan Bangash while presiding over a meeting on the supply of government subsidized flour on Wednesday.

The meeting was attended by secretary food, secretary auqaf, secretary agriculture, director performance management and reforms unit and senior officials.

Briefing the meeting, the secretary food said that the K-P Food Department has increased the annual wheat procurement target from 1.1 million metric tons to 1.4 million metric tons as compared to last year and procured 9 lakh metric tons of domestic wheat.

He said that in previous years, the food department had procured 55 per cent domestic and 45 per cent foreign wheat.

This year, the quantity of foreign wheat has been reduced to 35 per cent while domestic wheat has been increased to 65 per cent.

For the fiscal year 2022-23, the provincial government has allocated Rs35 billion for subsidizing flour. For this, the supply of subsidized flour from 1,614 registered dealers and about 50 mobile points across the province has been started from June 13, 2022.

Under the supervision of district administration and food department, flour is distributed at government subsidized rates through mobile sale points so that cheap flour can be provided to the people in a transparent manner.

A green bag has been introduced for clear identification of subsidized flour as 20kg of subsidized flour is being sold at Rs980 and 10 kg at Rs490.

The district administration has been directed to take stern action against wholesalers and hoarders to control inflation.

On this occasion, chief secretary appreciated the efforts of the district administration and the food department and issued instructions to continue further operations.

Director PMRU further said that an inspection was carried out in which 137 people were detained, 2,165 shops were sealed while FIRs were registered against 886 persons and a fine of Rs157 million imposed.

Giving further briefing, the director PMRU said that this year the delivery of subsidized flour has started in June instead of August and September.

He further said that flour mills have provided about 570,728 bags of 10 and 20 kg in the month of June in which 450,566 bags have been provided to the nominated dealers while 91,442 bags have been provided through mobile sale points.

Similarly, 542,008 bags of 10 and 20 kg have been sold to the public at subsidized rates.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 30^th, 2022.