Sindh opposes withdrawal of duty exemption: Wheat import
By Our Reporter
ISLAMABAD, April 15: The Sindh government is opposing a Minfal proposal for withdrawing the duty exemption on wheat import saying this move will destabilise domestic prices.
Informed sources told Dawn on Saturday that ministers from Sindh had strongly opposed a summary moved by the ministry of food, agriculture and livestock in the Economic Coordination Committee meeting held on Friday seeking levy of 20-25pc duty on wheat import.
The sources quoted the ministers to have said that imposition of duty would encourage profiteers to hoard the commodity which would push up the prices in the market.
On the intervention of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, the sources said, it was decided that the issue would be considered in the next ECC meeting.
A senior official of the Minfal told Dawn the country had a total stock of 2.15 million tons of wheat to date including stocks of Sindh, Punjab and PASSCO as against the stock of 0.4 million tons available during the same period last year.
He said that the urban consumption of the commodity stood at five million tons and it did not include consumption in the rural areas and seeds requirements. The country is likely to produce 20 to 21 million tons of wheat this year.
The total procurement of wheat this year would be five million tons by all food departments across the country which would make total available stock of 7 million tons this year.
“We have sufficient wheat stock which will help in maintaining the price stability in the market. The price of wheat is eight per cent down in real terms from last year,” the official claimed.
Ministers from Punjab, who are either landlords or serving the interest of their farmers, were behind the proposal of withdrawing duty exemption on the pretext that higher imports were pushing the local prices downward depriving the farmers of fair price of their produce.
The sources said that in the meeting some ministers also raised the issue of record high sugar prices.
According to the sources, the prime minister did not take notice of their call as some the ministers, who are owners of sugar mills, were also present in the meeting.
The sources said that the duty-free cement import would have a very minor impact on the price in the market. The ECC, however, allowed the import of cement from India via land route, the sources said and added that India was also facing shortage of the commodity for meeting its own requirement.
The textile minister opposed the raise in the intervention price for phutti, but other ministers supported the move and prime minister approved the proposal, the sources said.
They said that the meeting did not seriously discuss the issue of uneven increase in the pulses price in the domestic market on the plea that the price of the commodity was also high in other countries of the region.
