March 8, 2006	Wednesday	Safar 7, 1427

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window).

ISLAMABAD, March 7: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has started quizzing the officials of the relevant ministries to determine the causes for the sugar crisis.

Sources told Dawn that in this regard, the NAB team first questioned the officials of Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock (Minfal) about the cultivation, production and estimation of sugarcane.

The present crop estimation, involving the federal as well as provincial ministries of Minfal and their allied departments, was based on speculative statistics.

The sources said that it would be a tough task for the NAB to determine the causes for the sugar crisis from the official records, as there would hardly be any clue left to help the team identify the reasons.

“For economic investigations you must have an economic background of national and international economic issues, which could enable you to correlate the issues,” the sources said.

In a review of the major agriculture produce in October last year, it was observed that this year the production of sugar cane would remain short of the last year’s, which might cause sugar crisis in the country.

They were also aware of the fact that this year a leading sugar exporter in Brazil would use sugar for production of ethanol for use as fuel in vehicles, the sources added.

When it was determined that this year sugar production would be short of the target, then why the relevant ministries did not come up with an immediate policy to import sugar at cheaper rates from the international market, the sources asked.

The sources said that the NAB officials were collecting information from the relevant officials of the Minfal to identify whether the ministry had timely informed the high-ups about the issue.

A slight decrease of 2.87 per cent in the country’s sugar cane production in 2005-06 does not justify the current high sugar prices, as enough imports have already been made to meet the shortfall.

The sugar cane production declined to 45.886 million tons during the 2005-06 season as against 47.243 million during 2004-05 season.

Interestingly, the relevant ministries were also aware of the fact that the sugar cane production of 47.243 million tons during 2004-05 season was even less than 53.420 million recorded in the 2003-04 season.

This indicates the lukewarm response of the relevant ministries towards the constant decline observed in the sugar cane production during the last three years.

On the other hand, instead of addressing the issue head on, the government constituted a committee and held a number of meetings which caused wastage of time resulting in an increase in the price of sugar in the international market, the sources added. The NAB officials would now determine whether this delay was intentional or just an eyewash.

The sources said that the NAB had quizzed the officials of the Ministry of Industries and Production on Tuesday about sugar production and stocks in the mills during the current season.

The NAB officials, the sources said, would check the reliability of industrial data regarding the sugar stock and production. There was also variation in the data compiled and produced by various ministries on consumption and production of sugar in the country.

Had there been an efficient data system in place, the ministry of industries would have informed the high-ups much earlier about the shortfall in sugar production enabling import of sugar as the commodity was available at a cheaper rate in the international market.