PESHAWAR: Though the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has blamed flour crisis in the province on its counterpart in Sindh, the local traders disagree and insist that Punjab is responsible for the issue and whenever it withdraws the ban on the inter-province movement of its wheat, the flour price will normalise.

On Jan 11, KP food minister Mohammad Atif claimed that the flour’s price went up in the province after the Sindh government set the wheat support rate higher than the one announced by the Punjab government.

Flour dealers in KP rejected the minister’s assertion and said the issue had nothing to do with the wheat support price fixed by Sindh.

“Sindh’s wheat support price is for the next crop. I don’t know who gave Atif this idea [of blaming support price for flour crisis],” a member of the flour traders’ body told Dawn.

They say if Punjab allows inter-provincial movement of wheat, prices will drop next day

He said KP won’t blame Punjab for the flour crisis as both provinces were ruled by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and its allies.

The trader said there was no wheat shortage in the country.

“Open the Attock border [withdraw the ban on wheat transportation from Punjab to other provinces] and you will see the flour price drop the very next day,” KP Flour Dealers Association chairman Haji Waheed told Dawn.

According to Mr Waheed, understanding the issue doesn’t involve rocket science.

“Look, Punjab is the main wheat supplier and when it bans wheat movement, the market will have a shortage. Normally, a 20kg flour bag sells for Rs1,500 in Punjab but costs us [KP residents] Rs1,800 when Section 144 [restriction on movement] is imposed,” he said.

Mr Waheed said if “somebody” had bribed officials of Punjab’s food and police departments and paid around Rs0.2 million for a truck with 100 bags for transportation outside Punjab, the price would go up to Rs2,000 per bag.

He added that transportation costs would take the bag’s rate to Rs2,100 for wholesalers only. “Retailers will charge people at least Rs200 per bag, so the 20kg bag purchased at Rs1,800 will reach the market at Rs2,300,” he said.

The dealer body’s chairman said not even a single cargo ship of wheat had reached the country since April 2022 clearly showing that there was no need for import as the godowns had wheat required until the 2023 crushing season.

On the other hand, businessmen claimed that the flour crisis was caused by mismanagement.

“If the government claims to have increased the daily quota of subsidised flour bags from 5,000 tons to 6,500 tons, where the flour is going,” said former flour mill owner Haji Mohammad Niaz.

He said if the government distributed 325,000 flour bags daily, it should reach around 325,000 families or some 2.2 million people daily.

“With around 5.7 million families, at least 18 days are required to supply flour to every family in KP, and remember that I am talking about subsidised flour for the underprivileged and not the one available on the market,” he said.

Mr Niaz alleged that less than half of the subsidised flour reached “genuine” consumers, while the rest was sold on the open market.

“The flour supply chain should be maintained. The district administration should ask mill owners who they supplied the flour to, while the administration should ask dealers who they sold bags of subsidised flour to. Do it for two days only and you’ll see the flour price come down instantly,” he said.

When contacted, KP food director Mohammad Yasir Hassan said the province had purchased 12 million tons of wheat for over Rs95 billion for provision to people at subsidised rate. He said the subsidy costs the government around Rs35 billion.

The director denied wheat smuggling to Afghanistan.

“Only someone with an unsound mind will transport wheat to Afghanistan these days as wheat prices in Afghanistan are lower compared with Pakistan’s,” he said.

Published in Dawn, January 13th, 2023