Sugar import plans to be finalised within a week

KARACHI: A subcommittee has been formed to finalise details concerning the import of sugar into the country. The body has been given a period of one week to decide the exact quantity of raw and processed sugar to be imported. It comprises secretaries of various ministries and the chairman of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).

Members are also supposed to deliberate over the modus operandi for the import of raw sugar, including the mechanism for allowing the private sector to import stocks. The subcommittee’s report will be submitted for approval to the ministerial committee on sugar, set up by the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC).

This was decided during a meeting of the ministerial committee on sugar chaired by the minister for industries and production, Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani, in Islamabad on Thursday.

“About $100 million can be saved by importing raw sugar to be refined in the country,” asserted Iskandar Khan, chairman Pakistan Sugar Mills Association. “There is zero per cent duty on refined sugar, while there is a 25 per cent import duty on raw sugar,” he pointed out, calling for an overhaul of the current tariff structure. He was of the view that such conditions help to drain precious foreign exchange away from the country.

Stakeholders also stressed the need for strict implementation of a ban on the export of sugar and ‘gurr’ and on the need to check smuggling of these items.  The meeting was attended by the minister for food and agriculture, the minister for commerce, the minister of state for finance, the chairman of the Trading Commission of Pakistan (TCP), the managing director of the Utility Stores Corporation, the cane commissioner of the ministry for food and agriculture, the federal secretaries for industries and production, and food and agriculture, the additional secretaries for industries and production, finance, commerce and representatives of provincial governments, the State Bank and private sector importers.

Participants were also apprised of the position of domestic and imported sugar stocks. According to a press release issued by the Press Information Department, TCP chairman Anjum Bashir said that the total domestic stocks of sugar stand at 0.4 million tons, adding that so far 418,000 tons of sugar have arrived in the country against letters of credit issued for the import of 995,000 tons.

Bashir said that 132,000 tons of sugar are expected this month while another 626,875 tons will arrive in October and November. He added that the cumulative stocks of sugar tally to a little more than 1.13 million tons and are sufficient for meeting national demand for the sweetener till the first week of December.

The cane commissioner informed the committee about the position of the sugarcane crop and explained that after taking flood losses into account, a gap of around 1.2 million tons is expected between the supply and demand for sugar, comparable to last year’s shortage.

The government has been advised to import of 500,000 tons of raw sugar to fill this gap.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 17^th, 2010.