Sugar-starved Punjab to receive 10,000 tons daily

TCP to increase the supply of sugar to Punjab from 50,000 tons to 100,000 tons.

KARACHI: The Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) will increase the supply of sugar to Punjab from 50,000 tons to 100,000 tons. This was stated by Punjab Minister for Food Chaudhry Abdul Ghafoor, while addressing media at the Karachi Press Club on Wednesday.

Punjab Secretary for Food Irfan Elahi added that all arrangements have been made to lift sugar from TCP starting Wednesday night. “We can lift as much as 10,000 tons of sugar per day and complete the task within 10 days,” said Elahi. The first batch is expected to arrive in the province within a day.

The provincial food minister also warned that the government will crack down on profiteers hoarding stocks of sugar instead of releasing them to the market. “We have checked that sugar is not with the millers. According to our reports, it is with the hoarders and we are going to take legal action against them,” said Ghafoor.

The provincial minister also expressed hope that “the sugar lifted will be supplied to wholesalers and retailers in all districts of Punjab in the next three days to improve the situation.”

He asserted that spiralling prices of the sweetener will also subside once the latest shipments arrive in Punjab. Moreover, crushing of sugarcane has already commenced, bolstering expectations of resumption of local sugar supply in coming days.

Ghafoor also met with Trading Corporation of Pakistan Chairman Anjum Bashir and Elahi earlier in the day. A TCP official confirmed that “as per the decision of the Council of Common Interests, the sugar allocation to provincial governments has been enhanced and Punjab and Sindh will receive 100,000 tons and 70,000 tons respectively.”

Meanwhile, wholesale prices of sugar have already started receding in Karachi. Karachi Wholesale Grocers Association Chairman Anis Majeed told The Express Tribune that “wholesale rates of sugar declined steadily from Rs95 to Rs88 per kg today (Wednesday). Supply appears to be improving as stocks of imported sugar bought from TCP are arriving on one hand, while on the other crushing has also started in mills,” said Majeed.

He added that “the price of sugar will probably fall tomorrow (Thursday) and the trend in coming days will also be downward.”

While prices appear to be cooling off, the debate over the cause of the sugar crisis continues to warm up. Two days after federal commerce minister Amin Faheem held provincial governments responsible for the shortage, Bashir Bilour, a senior minister from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, retorted “sugar price is not under the control of provinces.”

Talking to the media on Wednesday, Bilour alleged that provinces cannot control sugar prices because many ministers own sugar mills, adding that “the national crisis can be addressed if the federal government checks profiteering.”

Ministerial committee to review sugar situation

A ministerial committee of the Economic Coordination Committee will meet in Islamabad on Thursday to assess the availability of sugar in the country. The meeting will be attended by Federal Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Syed Naveed Qamar, Federal Minister for Commerce Makhdoom Amin Faheem, Federal Minister for Food and Agriculture Nazar Mohammad Gondal, Federal Minister for Science and Information Technology Azam Swati, TCP chairman Anjum Bashir, Federal Board of Revenue chairman and Planning Commission deputy chairman, along with federal and provincial grain commissioners. “The TCP chairman will apprise the committee about the current stock of sugar available with the corporation, which is about 346,000 tons,” a TCP official said.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 11^th, 2010.