LAHORE: Punjab on Friday started regulating sugar market by tracking down the entire supply chains – from millers to dealers to retailers – and claimed to have recovered thousands of tonnes of sugar and sealed two mills.

According to an official, though the High Court has restrained the department from seizing stocks, it has certainly not stopped it from ensuring official rates and tracking down the defaulters in any way.

The department has asked the millers to provide entire record of their sales to the officials so that the department knows who is selling and to whom he is selling. “The millers cannot tell the department that they are selling at Rs140 and so are the dealers. The government is determined to trace and track each kilogramme of sugar now and ensure sale at the notified price.”

Meanwhile, according to a press release, Chief Secretary Kamran Ali Afzal said those fleecing consumers by creating an artificial shortage of essential commodities would be dealt with an iron hand.

He maintained that the crackdown on the hoarders would continue without any discrimination. He said the sale of sugar at more than the ex-mill price of Rs84.75 and retail price of Rs89.75 per kg would not be allowed in any case.

He directed the administrative officers to take stern action against those selling the sweetener above the fixed rate. He said the officials had been deployed in all sugar mills to keep a check on stocks.

Speaking to Dawn, a dealer in the city explained Friday’s situation in these words: “Misled by millers, the district administration raided godowns and, even houses, of many dealers but found nothing.

The millers had told the department that the dealers were rigging the market. The dealers told the department that dealers do not have financial capacity to purchase even ten per cent of the total stocks. How can player of ten per cent manipulate the entire market?

“If the department has any list of such dealers, they must share it with association and they would try to deal with it. That is where the matter stands now.”

According to another dealer, “we have decided and committed to stop supplying sugar to market if millers do not behave and let the government sell imported sugar at the official rate.”

The official handout says that on the direction of the chief minister, to ensure the availability of sugar at the officially-fixed price, the provincial government has intensified a crackdown on hoarders, sealing two sugar mills and seizing hundreds of bags of the commodity during raids in some cities.

Acting on tip-offs from the Special Branch, the district administrations along with the food department and police teams conducted raids in Lahore, Sargodha, Sahiwal, Faisalabad and Rahim Yar Khan. The authorities sealed two sugar mills in Sargodha and Faisalabad, besides seizing 100 bags of sugar in Lahore, 480 bags in Sargodha, 960 bags in Sahiwal, and 6,757 metric tonnes of the sweetener in Rahim Yar Khan. The seized sugar will be sold in the market at the official rate.

Published in Dawn, November 6th, 2021