ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Industries and Production Hammad Azhar on Wednesday rejected a report, holding the government responsible for a delay in addressing the sugar and wheat crises, which reportedly caused losses to the exchequer to the tune of Rs404 billion, saying that “convoluted methods” in computing losses is “the latest twist”.
The minister said that Trading Corporation of Pakistan has imported sugar “at most competitive rates from international markets without any government subsidy involved”.
“It will also be sold in the market by Punjab Government at prices much below the current retail and ex-mill rates,” said the minister.
Azhar said that the report “falsely claims” the government had procured two million tonnes of sugar or that it is importing another million tonnes.
The minister said that the country’s total sugar consumption was around five to six million tonnes per year. And that the government is “importing 150k tonnes only”.
The commission report estimated sugar price at Rs63.13 after subtracting profits and taxes levelled on sugar mills. But the government bought 2.1 million tonnes of sugar at Rs83.50 from the sugar mills from December 2019 to July 2020. The government subsidy meant to provide relief to the public ended up as profits to the sugar mills, according to the report.
