September 04, 2007	Tuesday	Sha'aban 21, 1428

ISLAMABAD, Sept 3: Two federal ministers have called upon the prime minister and the Sindh and Punjab governments to take immediate steps for release of official stocks of wheat, sugar and dal channa in the market to control rising food prices.

Informed sources told Dawn on Monday that the ministers for industries and production and food and agriculture have also demanded of the prime minister to honour the recommendations of the inter-ministerial committee on food inflation forthwith because some hoarders close to the ruling class in Punjab and Sindh have started taking advantage of short supplies in the market.The sources said the minister for industries, Jahangir Khan Tarin, the head of the inter-ministerial committee on food inflation and the minister for food, agriculture and livestock, Sikandar Hayat Khan Bosan, also a member of the committee, met the prime minister separately in the last couple of days.

They formally asked as to why recommendations of the committee have not been implemented despite formal approval by the prime minister and the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet.

A source close to one of the ministers said the two ministers informed the prime minister that some elements in the Punjab and Sindh governments were delaying release of wheat to enable lobby of hoarders to offload about 1.2 million tons of their wheat stocks kept at petrol stations and other non-mill and non-functional flour mills.

The public sector has total stocks of about 4.7 million tons of wheat.

The sources said the government had announced after Aug 29 meeting of the ECC that wheat stocks from the public sector would be released from Sept 1-7 to only functional flour mills at a fixed issue price of Rs460-470 per 40 kg.

The government had also announced that a list of wheat hoarders had also been provided to the provincial governments with directives for immediate actions.

Dr Ashfaque Hasan Khan, a spokesman for the finance ministry, had also announced after the ECC meeting that the prime minister was also writing to the provincial governments to ensure start of wheat stock releases and take strict action against hoarders.“While the provincial governments did not take action against hoarders, they also did not even release their own stocks to the advantage of hoarders,” said the source.

Since releases from official stocks did not start on Sept 1 as expected, the market quickly responded to speculators, increasing the price of wheat to around Rs510-520 in Punjab.

The sources said one of the major reasons why the federal government could not prevail upon the provincial governments for release of wheat stocks was its pre-occupation with prevailing political situation when pricing issue had taken a back seat.

Market sources in Rawalpindi said almost same happened with dal channa and prices increased from Rs1,340 per 40 kg to Rs1,380 per 40 kg in the last two days.

The sources, however, said sugar prices have actually dropped slightly over the last week by around Rs50-60 per 40 kg and it was available at Rs2,750 per 100 kg in Punjab and two,650 in Sindh.

The inter-ministerial committee on food inflation that briefed the prime minister on Aug 22 had firmed up its recommendations within a period of 15 days and warned that prices of wheat and pulses would increase ahead of Ramazan if stocks were not released from Sept 1.

The sources said the government had also not released about 60,000 tons of gram that was purchased at Rs31/32 per kg by the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP).

The inter-ministerial committee comprised ministers for food and commerce, the State Bank governor, the Planning Commission deputy chairman and a representative of the finance ministry.