Wheat quota doubled for mills in Punjab

CM also increases number of official flour sale points across province

LAHORE:

Amid a countrywide crisis, Punjab Chief Minister Parvez Elahi has doubled the official daily quota of wheat for flour mills to ensure their availability in the province.

The chief minister has also doubled the number of official flour sale points across Punjab.

A total of 1.84 million bags of 10-kg flour will be available daily across the province at the official rate.

The mills in Punjab would be provided with more than their demand for 26,000 tonnes of government wheat from Monday (today), significantly reducing the prices of private grains and flour.

Read Flour millers demand higher wheat quota

The Punjab chief minister said the subsidy was being given to the common people under the Ehsaas programme, so that its benefit could reach both the cities and villages.

He added that to avail the targeted subsidy, one could join the Ehsaas programme through their national identity card number.

“All necessary steps are being taken to ensure the availability of flour to the public at a fixed price at the provincial and district level,” he maintained.

The prices of wheat and flour have hit unprecedented levels throughout the country amid the ongoing crisis.

After an uptick of Rs20, flour in Karachi is being sold from Rs140 per kg to Rs160 per kg.

In Islamabad and Peshawar, a 10-kg bag of flour is being sold at Rs1,500 per kg.

In Quetta, a 20-kg bag of flour is being sold at Rs2,800.

Mill owners in Punjab have increased the price of flour to Rs160 per kg, while the rate of a 15-kg private bag of the essential in the province has increased to Rs2,155.

It has come to the fore that the ongoing wheat and flour crisis in the country was because of the miscalculation of imported grain requirements by the provincial governments and the Centre’s delay in buying it from other countries.

Sources said the tussle between the federal and Punjab governments was responsible for the wheat crisis in the country.

Read More USC jacks up rates of sugar, flour, ghee

They added that the Punjab Food Department was unable to correctly estimate how much wheat was required to be imported.

The sources said Punjab had first demanded the supply of 500,000 tonnes of wheat and then increased it to one million tonnes.

The federal government kept giving its verbal consent to the province to provide it with one million tonnes but later went back on its word.

The decision to supply 500,000 tonnes of wheat to Punjab was also delayed.