Plea in Supreme Court: Punjab for uniform wheat support price

Says decision of Sindh and K-P to raise procurement price has created distortion.

ISLAMABAD:

The Punjab government has expressed fear that it may not achieve its wheat procurement target in the wake of a decision by Sindh and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) governments to increase the wheat support price.

On Monday, Punjab Additional Advocate General Razaq A Mirza – on behalf of the food departments – submitted an application in the top court regarding the increase in flour price. The applicant has requested the top court to establish a uniform support price for procurement of wheat throughout the country ‘to ensure food security targets in public interest’.  A copy of the application is available with The Express Tribune.

“The federal government fixed the support price for wheat crop 2013-14, at Rs1,200 per 40kg. In view of the difficulties of the poor man and the affordability aspect, the government of Punjab maintained the support price of wheat procurement at the rate of Rs1,200 per 40kg.

“[However] the K-P and Sindh governments unilaterally increased the rates of procurement of wheat from Rs1,200 to Rs1,250 per 40 Kg at the time of harvesting,” the application says.



Authorities in Punjab say the decision has created serious distortion in the wheat market of the Punjab, adding that now the Food Department and Pakistan Agriculture Storage and Services Corporation (Passco) are unable to secure their targets of wheat procurement for food security fixed by the federal government.

It says the federal government has fixed a target of 1.6 million tons for Punjab Food Department and 1.6 million tons for Passco.

“Increase in support price at the time of harvesting only benefits traders and middlemen and has adverse impact on poor consumers,” Punjab government contends.

It also says the public interest demands that there should be a uniform wheat support price for wheat across the country and free movement of wheat and wheat products and this should be done by the federal government.

The Punjab government has also rejected the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led K-P government’s concerns regarding the ban in the movement of wheat to the northwestern province.

“The government of Punjab has not imposed any restriction on inter-district or inter-provincial movement of wheat, wheat flour or other wheat products,” the application says.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 10^th, 2014.