Sugar industry blames portal closure, import policy for rising prices

ISLAMABAD: A special meeting of the Sugar Advisory Board was held under the Co-Chairmanship of Deputy Prime Minister Mr. Ishaq Dar and Federal Minister for National Food Security Rana Tanveer Hussain. The Deputy PM joined the meeting via Zoom, while the Federal Minister attended from Lahore office of the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association. The meeting discussed the situation of imported sugar, the closure of the S-Track portal and other issues.
In a statement, a PSMA spokesman said that the sugar industry made its position clear in the meeting that the government’s policy of preferential selling of imported sugar by closing the FBR portals is the reason behind the rising prices and low availability of sugar. Due to closure of portals in mills across the country for three weeks now sugar is not being supplied to the market and the mills at the same time are facing severe cash flow issues and repayment problems on loans taken from the banks.
Sugar industry representatives told the federal minister that the association has been telling the government since long about the closure of portals, while it opposed unnecessary sugar imports from the beginning, but approximately 300,000 tons of sugar has been imported. Now the government is facing problems in selling imported sugar thereby portals for selling local sugar have been closed.
During the meeting, various options were considered for purchase and distribution of imported sugar by sugar mills. The minister was informed that the industry had been informing the government in advance through various letters and press releases regarding the recent hike in sugar prices and availability, stating therein that keeping the portals closed would lead to shortage of sugar in the market which would ultimately increase its prices, but the industry’s requests were completely ignored. The sugar industry is not responsible for the rising prices of sugar and the real beneficiaries of the price hike are the dealers and profiteers. The government has disrupted the supply of better quality local sugar by sidelining the domestic industry through closing of the portal to sell imported sugar. Now sugar is not only expensive but is also not available in many areas.
The Federal Minister heard the industry’s concerns regarding the closure of portals and other issues and assured immediate resolution of those. Ends