SUKKUR, May 12: The Sukkur Chamber of Commerce and Industry has protested against the imposition of 50 per cent cash margin on wheat loans by the State Bank of Pakistan.

The president of the chamber, Khalid Mehmood Khan, and its members at a meeting held here on Wednesday said that now one had to deposit Rs50,000 with the bank concerned to get a loan of Rs100,000.

The meeting said that it was a conspiracy against flour mills. It said that the SBP decision was a reversal of its early policy of market liberalization. It said that late last month, the SBP had allowed banks to fix margins on their own.

The chamber was of the opinion that the imposition of 50 per cent margin would not help contain wheat hoarding but would affect the cost of flour production. It said that the food department was supplying a meagre portion of wheat quota to flour mills, as a result the mills could operate only for three hours a day.

The chamber members said that the situation had caused financial losses to millers and it would lead to an increase in flour price. They appealed to the federal government to intervene in the matter and ask the SBP to do away with the condition of 50 per cent margin on wheat loans.

ROAD BLOCKED: The Garhi Khairo-Jacobabad road was blocked following the killing of a man in Dodapur on Wednesday morning. The protestors put the body of Qasim Mangi on the road and blocked it for vehicular traffic.

The Taluka Police Officer, Dodapur, reached the spot and on his assurance the blockade was ended. The cause behind the murder was said to be an old enmity.