By Our Correspondent
LAHORE: Pakistan Sugar Mills Association has said with regards to the news circulating about the rising prices of sugar that the government was being informed through various letters and press releases since early October about unnecessary sugar imports and that the FBR portals should be kept open for continuous supply of sugar in the market.
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In a statement, a PSMA spokesman said that the first such letter to the government was written on October 4, while the second and third letters were written on October 9 and October 15 respectively. It was clearly stated in the letters that the government must lift ban on closure of FBR portals at the earliest so that supply of local quality sugar continues in the market and prices remain stable. But the portals remain closed in order to sell low quality imported sugar, which led to shortage of sugar in the market and prices started rising, for which the sugar industry is neither the beneficiary nor responsible.
Ever since the sugar industry has been drawing the government’s attention to this important issue and if the industry’s requests had been taken into consideration then the current situation would not have arisen. The sugar supply chain was disrupted which is causing prices to rise.
At the same time, the PSMA is receiving complaints from sugar mills of different districts that the district administration there is forcing the mills to sell sugar only to government-nominated dealers and is not allowing direct sales to the markets. These measures are creating further sugar supply chain issues in the market.
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