09 May 2004	Sunday	18 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1425

LAHORE, May 8: The Pakistan Flour Mills Association will review the increase of Rs16 per 20kg in flour prices towards the end of next week.

"If wheat prices are reduced in the market as a result of government measures, we will also bring down flour rates. But if the prices go up further, we'd raise the flour rates," PFMA adviser Bilal Soofi told Dawn on Saturday.

After the recent hike in flour prices, a 20kg bag is available in the market for Rs230. The PFMA said it was constrained to increase the flour price by Rs16 in just one week because wheat rates in the market had already touched Rs385 to 395 a maund in central and northern parts of the province.

However, Mr Soofi said, flour mills in the provincial capital had decided to supply flour to Sunday Bazaars at a subsidized rate of Rs216 per 20kg on the request of the provincial food department. But he ruled out the possibility of reducing flour prices unless wheat rates also came down.

"The food department cannot dictate flour price because we are not getting wheat from it. The flour rate is being determined by market forces."

Mr Soofi said the government had also allowed flour mills from Rawalpindi and Islamabad to procure wheat from Faisalabad and Sargodha to ease the flour availability situation and bring down prices in the twin cities. He said the decision was taken by the food department after a meeting with a delegation of the PFMA earlier in the day.

He said the food department had also stopped raiding flour mills to recover the stocked wheat. "Now they are campaigning only against hoarders."

Meanwhile, the PFMA has decided to convene a meeting of its central executive in the provincial metropolis on Tuesday to review the situation in the country after the imposition of a ban on wheat movement out of the province.

Mr Soofi said the PFMA had proposed to the government to temporarily lift the ban on movement of wheat for the sake of inter-provincial harmony.