April 18, 2007	Wednesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 29, 1428

KARACHI, April 17: The Union of Small and Medium Enterprises (Unisame) has urged the government to remove quota on wheat exports for private sector till June 30, 2007 as the country is set to harvest bumper crop of about 24 million tons.

Unisame president Zulfikar Thaver in a statement issued here on Tuesday said that the government had fixed an export quota of 50,000 tons for the private sector on first-come-first-served-basis which was too meagre quantity in view of large production of wheat this year.

He said the private sector was not seeking any subsidy from the government as the SME exporters were getting firm enquiries from their overseas buyers due to bumper wheat crop and were keen to import the commodity from them.

He said that several exporters had expressed apprehension that in view of the inadequate quota they would not be able to fulfil the orders from their overseas buyers.

He said that Unisame could not understand the logic of imposition of quota restriction when the government was aware of the fact that after meeting the domestic consumption demand of 20 million tons, there would be an exportable surplus of around 4 million tons.

He also pointed out that the crop of other countries would enter the world market by August 2007 making it difficult for Pakistani exporters to clinch deals at competitive rates.

He observed that the bad practices of the officials involved in quota business along with faulty quota system would further aggravate the situation for exporters.

He suggested wheat export should be free and exporters should be allowed to procure export quantities from the open market or directly from growers.