ISLAMABAD, Feb 17: The government banned on Tuesday import of wheat by private sector, saying it would benefit growers.

A meeting of the Task Force on Agriculture also decided to help the Pakistan Agricultural Supplies and Storage Corporation and provincial food departments to achieve the wheat procurement target of 6.5 million tons.

It said there should be no restriction on inter-provincial movement of wheat and asked the Punjab government not to stop supplies to the NWFP and other parts of the country.

Minister for Food and Agriculture Nazar Mohammad Gondal, Adviser to the Prime Minister Shaukat Tarin, Minister of State for Finance Hina Rabbani Khar, Minister for Industries Manzoor Ahmed Wattoo and Minister for Privatisation Naveed Qamar attended the meeting.

Addressing a press conference after the meeting, Mr Gondal said the finance ministry would provide around Rs200 billion for wheat procurement.

He said 1.5 million tons of wheat would be procured by Passco, 3.05 million tons by the Punjab government, 1.2 million tons by Sindh, 300,000 tons by the NWFP and 500,000 tons by the Balochistan government.

The government would purchase wheat beyond the target if growers so desired, Mr Gondal said.

The wheat stock position is satisfactory. By the end of last week, Punjab had 1.1 million tons, Sindh 50,000 tons, the NWFP 184,000 tons and Balochistan 65,000 tons. The private sector has its own stocks.

About 590,000 tons of imported wheat started arriving at the Gwadar port on Friday and the process will continue till March 5. The Trading Corporation of Pakistan will complete the import of another 272,000 tons of wheat by March 31. The World Food Programme will provide another 30,000 tons.

Talking to Dawn, Food and Agriculture Secretary Ziaur Rehman said he hoped the wheat production target of 25 million tons would be achieved this year.

The government timely fixed the procurement price at Rs950 per 40kg, which comes to Rs23,750 or $300 per ton. In the international market, wheat is selling at around $200 a ton and the price has been declining for the past few weeks.