July 05, 2006	Wednesday	Jumadi-ul-Sani 8, 1427

KARACHI, July 4: The Utility Stores Corporation (USC) has allowed shopkeepers to purchase 10 bags of 50 kg each of sugar at wholesale price of Rs34 per kg in Sindh and Balochistan zone for onward sale of sweetener at retail.

For this purpose, the USC has allocated a quota of 10,000 tons per month for the supply of sugar to the retailers in the zone.

However, this new initiative from the USC has come very late as sugar at the wholesale stage is already tagged at Rs34 per kg, while on retail side it is selling at Rs36--37 per kg. There is hardly any charm left for the retailers to lift sugar from the USC.

“The 10,000 tons per month (Brazilian sugar) for retailers is a separate quota, while the government is already providing 32,000 tons of sugar produced by local mills to the utility stores all over the country, which is being retailed at Rs27.50 per kg at the stores,” USC manager Sindh and Balochistan zone Masood Alam Niazi told Dawn on Tuesday.

The USC has a regional warehouse in Korangi from where retailers can purchase sugar at the wholesale price. The exercise had been initiated five days back but the response from the retailers so far had not been very encouraging as they were unaware of the USC’s move, besides sugar was also available at Rs34 per kg at wholesale stage.

Masood said that retailers were enquiring about the sugar at the warehouse. They are asked to present the food grain licence, NIC card and shops’ address to become eligible for the purchase of sugar. He said the scheme was basically aimed at facilitating small shopkeepers. However, it is hard to identify small retailers when majority of traders are operating without trade licence in Sindh, he added.

He said that there had always been a fluctuation in the wholesale price of sugar in the open market on daily basis but the USC had a fixed rate of Rs34 per kg. The corporation will enhance the quota depending on the response. “The USC move may bring stability in sugar prices in the retail and wholesale markets,” he added.

The utility stores, especially in Karachi, have been in the news since sugar crisis gripped the country. Despite increase in quota by the government for USC to 32,000 tons from 11,000 tons in January this year, consumers are still seen making long queues for sugar. Many consumers, after waiting for 15-20 minutes in the line, return empty handed.

The prime minister has strictly ordered the USC not to force the consumers in buying other items before purchasing sugar but market reports suggest that the consumers are still being asked by the stores’ officials to first buy some other essential items and then sugar.

Masood ruled out the possibility that stores’ officials were involved in such practice. There is absolutely no restriction on consumers to first buy other items before purchasing two kg or four kg of sugar, he added

In view of Rs8.50--9.50 per kg difference in prices between the utility stores and the retail market, more than 80 per cent buyers usually visit the stores for only sugar purchase instead of other items. In February, 2006, the gap was Rs12.50 per kg.

He did not agree, saying that 40 per cent people were on sugar hunt at the stores, while the rest come for other essential items.

To a query that some stores’ officials are involved in corruption like selling sugar to sweat shops, bakeries etc and thus creating shortage at the stores, he said there was no such complaint so far. He added that actually some vested interests among the shopkeepers were creating problems outside the stores by either sending their volunteers for multiple purchases or sometimes waiting on their own so that they could make windfall.

The Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) has supplied 0.254 million tons of sugar to the USC during January 2005 to June 30, 2006 and out of these, 42,000 tons were imported sugar.

Coming to pulses, he said that the pulses’ sales had been going steady because of Rs10 per kg gap between the market and the utility stores’ prices. The government had announced price reduction in pulses by Rs10 per kg after announcing subsidy on its imports.

The USC manager further said that there was no chaos like situation in sale of pulses because of its low consumption as compared to sugar, whose consumption is 325,000 tons per month. People are buying pulses as per their requirement, he concluded.