By Commerce Reporter
LAHORE: Pakistan Sugar Mills Association has stated citing media reports that the reasons behind increase in sugar prices are closure of FBR portals, restrictions on inter-provincial movement of sugar, and sale of sugar through government-appointed dealers.
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In a statement, a PSMA spokesman said that the sugar industry has been requesting the government since long that closure of portals will cause sugar supply shortfall in the market and its prices will increase.
The government kept putting pressure on sugar mills to sell unnecessary and substandard imported sugar on priority but since the majority of the public did not like imported sugar and due to closure of portals, local sugar did not reach the market, it led to an increase in sugar prices. Portals in Sindh were closed so that imported sugar at Karachi Port could be sold first.
The spokesman clarified that ever since the government has been imposing all these curbs on the sugar industry, supply of sugar in the market started decreasing, due to which the prices of the commodity started increasing, of which the sugar industry is neither beneficiary nor responsible. In Punjab, the district administration continued to force mills to sell sugar only to government-designated dealers who sold sugar on higher rates in the markets. The sugar industry has always cooperated with the government and is not responsible for all these reasons behind price hike.
The crushing season has now begun in sugar mills across the country and prices are likely to be normalized with the arrival of new sugar in the markets. The sugar industry demands the government to lift unconstitutional and illegal restrictions on interprovincial movement of sugar so that the commodity can reach every nook and corner of the country and is available on similar prices in all provinces.
