Hammad Azhar rejects 'convoluted' report of govt procuring 2 million tonnes of sugar from mills

Federal Minister for Industries and Production Hammad Azhar on Wednesday rejected a report by Geo News holding the government responsible for a delay in addressing the sugar and wheat crises — which reportedly caused losses to the exchequer to the tune of Rs404 billion — saying that "convoluted methods" in computing losses is "the latest twist".

The minister said that Trading Corporation of Pakistan has imported sugar "at most competitive rates from international markets without any government subsidy involved".

“It will also be sold in the market by Punjab Government at prices much below the current retail and ex-mill rates,” said the minister.

Azhar said that the report "falsely claims" the government had procured two million tonnes of sugar or that it is importing another million tonnes.

The minister said that the country’s total sugar consumption was around five to six million tonnes per year. And that the government is "importing 150k tonnes only”.

Delayed decisions cost Rs404b: report

On Tuesday night, Geo News programme "Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Ke Saath" aired a report showing that the Imran Khan-led government’s delayed decisions to limit the wheat and sugar crisis caused a collective loss of Rs404 billion to the people.

In his show, Khanzada said the PTI government had four chances to contain the wheat crisis by banning the export of the commodity so that importing it later at expensive rates can be avoided, but it failed to do so.

The first opportunity came when the government was informed that the wheat crop could not meet the target. The second was in May when the procurement could not be done according to the requirements. The third chance came in June when the government decided to import wheat but it did not issue a notification of the judgment.

Read more: Mill owners work together to create sugar crises, Competition Commission finds

Lastly, the fourth was in July when the government decided to give tax concession on imported wheat but the commodity was not imported, causing a serious surge in wheat prices.

The hike in wheat prices excessively burdened the people to the tune of Rs205 billion.

"Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Ke Saath" revealed that the annual consumption of wheat is 124 kilogrammes per capita, the monthly consumption is 10kg per capita, while the total population of the country is 220 million.

On the sugar crisis, Khanzada said the government’s decisions caused a loss of Rs18.4 billion with the people paying an excess of Rs3.3 billion.

According to the research, the government failed to procure sugar despite the Sugar Commission report alerting them that the production of sugarcane would not meet the need.

So far, Pakistan has imported 55,000 tonnes of sugar and plans to acquire another one million ton in a bid to bring down the price by Rs15, said the report.

Read more: Commercial sale of sugar banned in Punjab

The commission report estimated sugar price at Rs63.13 after subtracting profits and taxes levelled on sugar mills. But the government bought 2.1 million tonnes of sugar at Rs83.50 from the sugar mills from December 2019 to July 2020. The government subsidy meant to provide relief to the public ended up as profits to the sugar mills, according to the report.