KARACHI, July 26: Pakistan planned to keep sugar imports duty free for another year to avoid any price spiral as the current sugarcane crop won't meet domestic demand, officials said on Wednesday.
Pakistani agriculture officials reckon the crop in 2006-07 will be between 46 and 50 million tons, whereas the country needs a harvest of over 50 million tons to meet its annual sugar demand of 3.9-4.0 million tons.
Ashfaque Hassan Khan, economic adviser to the finance ministry, told Reuters that the government would retain its “zero-rated import duty” on refined and raw sugar for now.
“The crop size would weigh on our decision regarding the imposition of the import duty, but this is for sure that we are not going to touch the duty structure this year,” Mr Khan said.
“We don't want to have a situation like last year, when less output created a supply crisis in the country,” he added. “But we would only consider any hike in import duty if the output improved.”
