PESHAWAR: Wheat crisis brewing in Frontier province
By Shafiq Ahmad
PESHAWAR, Nov 16: The Frontier province will once face shortage of flour if the government does not take immediate measures to ensure supply of wheat to the flour mills on subsidised rates.
A meeting to resolve the issue of wheat crisis was held here on Wednesday which was attended by the NWFP chapter of the Pakistan Flour Mills Association (PFMA) and Provincial Director Foods Tahir Yaseen.
The PFMA team, comprised flour millers from Peshawar, Dir, Charsadda, Swat and Mansehra, was led by Malik Iftikhar Ahmad Awan.
Sources told Dawn on Thursday that the team had apprised the director food of the scarcity of flour in many areas of the province. The team also blamed the district food offices at Hangu and Dir for supplying sub-standard wheat to the flour mills.
Col Yaseen assured the team of uninterrupted wheat supply to flour mills. He also asked the millers not to purchase wheat from the Food Department godowns if it was substandard.
However, on Thursday morning, the director food allegedly instructed all the district food departments not to allow the millers to purchase more than 100 sacks (1,000kg) of wheat, which was insufficient to run the mills.
The millers alleged that despite the director’s promise, the food controllers were forcing the millers to buy only the substandard wheat which was available in the government godowns particularly at Hangu and Dir.
The sources said that because of these reasons the flour mills industry could not flourish in the Frontier province as the current government never took the issue seriously.
They stated that the government had not purchased wheat from Punjab for the last many months and was providing wheat to floor mills in insufficient amount.
District Hazara is already facing flour crisis and the situation would further worsen if the government failed to take immediate steps for the resolution of the issue.
Except for Peshawar, Nowshera and Dera Ismail Khan, all other areas in the province were in the grip of flour shortage, the sources maintained.
Almost 93 per cent of flour mills in the province pulled their shutters during the last three years owing to wrong policies of the government. Out of nearly 300 flour mills in the NWFP, only 20 are operational and that too are mostly catering to the needs of Afghanistan.
The sources said for the Frontier province, the wholesale dealers purchased flour from the mills in Punjab as the Punjab government had banned the transport of wheat. They allowed the Frontier traders to buy only flour, but the wholesale dealers after purchasing the commodity from Punjab smuggled it to Afghanistan, they maintained.
The NWFP government had no planning to meet the wheat requirement of the Frontier population, the sources maintained.
They said that the rate of a 100kg sack of wheat in Punjab was Rs800, in Sindh Rs750, in Balochistan Rs797 while in the NWFP the rate was Rs860.
They said the Peshawar dealers hoarded flour which they purchased from Punjab, and during the truckers’ strike they increased the rate of the 20kg sack from Rs195 to Rs215.
The sources said that out of 300 four mills, 225 were in running condition, but only about 20 flour mills were operational. The remaining mills were established, but were never used for grinding wheat as their owners feared that the business was neither profitable nor sustainable.
Owing to its policies, the government not only spoiled the huge investment of about Rs7.5 billion of the 300 mills owners, but also caused a huge loss to the national exchequer.
The sources said that over 40,000 workers were unemployed due to closure of the flour mills in the NWFP.
According to a rough estimate, the Water and Power Development Authority is losing Rs60 million monthly. The government is also losing Rs6million in the GST, Rs6million in income tax, Rs4.5 million in social security, insurance, pension and labour charges per month.
