Subsidies: PML-Q slams wheat price increase

the government’s duty is to provide relief to the masses, not to do business, says PML-Q Punjab Senior...

LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) Punjab Senior Vice-President Muhammad Basharat Raja has criticised the government’s decision to increase the official wheat purchase price to Rs1,330 per 40kg, saying it would result in many people going hungry.

In an emergency PML-Q meeting at Muslim League House here on Wednesday, Raja said that the Punjab government should withdraw the increase and reduce the prices of flour and bread.

He said that the PML-N had promised that rotis would be sold at Rs2 each. By now raising the wheat price, the party was going back on its word, he added.

He said that the party would raise the issue in the Punjab Assembly as well as the National Assembly and the Senate.

He said that the government was buying wheat from farmers at Rs1,250 per 40kg and then selling it to flour mills at Rs1,330 per 40kg.

He added that the government had announced a subsidy of Rs30 billion to keep the price of flour down.

He said that the government’s duty was to provide relief to the masses, not to do business.

MPAs and PML-Q Punjab Additional General Secretary Nasir Mahmud Gill also attended the meeting.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 5^th, 2013.