August 26, 2006	Saturday	Sha'aban 1, 1427

ISLAMABAD, Aug 25: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has approved procedures for releasing sugar stock of over 891,000 tons lying with the Trading Corporation of Pakistan for the last two months to stabilise its price ahead of Ramazan.

Officials told Dawn on Friday that it was decided that the TCP and the Utility Stores Corporation would carry out the task of releasing the stock across the country. They said to keep the price below the market, the prime minister also approved an amount of over Rs3 billion as subsidy to bear the cost of price difference to be sold out to the utility stores and wholesale markets. The average price of TCP's sugar was Rs38.50 per kg in July 2006.

When asked about the price for releasing the stock, the officials said it would be determined later on keeping in view the market trend.

The delay in releasing sugar stocks during the last two months resulted in a huge loss to the national kitty because of carryover charges.

Besides, the price of sugar in the international market also reduced to $333 per ton as against the highest rate of $518 per ton on which Pakistan imported sugar from the international market.

Of 100,000 tons of sugar to be released before Ramazan, the officials said, it was decided that the TCP would release 60,000 tons in Sindh alone, while the remaining 40,000 tons along with 32,000 tons allocated quota of utility stores would be released by the USC in the three provinces --Punjab, Balochistan and NWFP.

They said 50,000 tons each would be released in October and November. Of these 25,000 would be for Sindh while 25,000 tons for the rest of the three provinces, besides the allocated quota of the utility stores.

The officials admitted that the quantity allocated for the three provinces would not help a lot in bringing down the sugar price in the market. Similarly, the releasing of total 200,000 tons stocks in bulk would also not give a clear signal to hoarders and stockiest to release their stock.

The officials said it was also decided to keep a reserve of around 400,000 tons with the TCP as carryover for the next year. This means that the government would bear a huge loss to the national kitty for keeping such a huge stock, as sugar millers have their own carryover stocks.