February 11, 2006	Saturday	Muharram 12, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, Feb 10: Import of sugar from India cannot solve our crisis, as the Indian mills have also increased the prices of the commodity from $380 to $480 per ton.

“This step by the government is inadequate. It could further increase or stabilise the existing skyrocketing sugar prices,” said The Network for Consumer Protection, a non-governmental organisation, in a statement issued here on Friday.

The statement said there was nothing new in the recent decision of the government to ease the sugar crisis and the masses would continue to suffer.

The government’s overt denial to provide any subsidy on sugar has further aggravated the situation and encouraged the hoarders and profiteers, who, through this artificial crisis, were earning billions, the statement said.

The government should start a probe into the entire crisis and take action against the elements creating the entire fuss, the statement further said.

The most solid intervention by the government was the release of sugar stock last year that was purchased by the Trade Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) to help the ailing sugar industry, it said. It also asked the government to release the 500,000 tons of refined sugar lying in the warehouses of the sugar mills.

“Doubling the quota of the Utility Stores would not create any positive impact since the Utility Stores had also increased the prices and a very tiny population had access to such stores,” it observed.

“It is the failure of the government’s regulatory system and the consumers are paying the price for it,” the statement deplored and added that stakes of influential persons present in the corridors of power were being protected at the cost of the masses.

The report said that the Indian sugar mills had also increased sugar prices from $380 to $480 per ton and asked the government to implement a long-term policy to avert such a crisis in future. The farmers, it said, should be encouraged through various schemes to increase the cultivation of sugarcane.