December 28, 2007	Friday	Zilhaj 17, 1428

ISLAMABAD, Dec 27: The federal government has authorised Pakistan Rangers in Punjab and Sindh to halt smuggling of wheat — an apparent move to resolve the on-going flour crisis across Pakistan.

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Thursday issued a notification that sought to carry out anti-smuggling functions by the rangers within their respective jurisdictions to deal with illegal movement of wheat.

The powers have been delegated under the Customs Act to ensure greater vigilance on the possible smuggling of wheat. The powers will remain delegated to Pakistan Rangers (Punjab) and Pakistan Rangers (Sindh) till March 31.

When contacted, an official of the FBR told Dawn that earlier the Frontier Corps (FC) had been authorised to undertake anti-smuggling campaign in Sindh and Balochistan. Now, he said, smuggling of wheat in all the four provinces would be checked vigorously and those who involved would be arrested.

The official said wheat smuggling was causing embarrassment to the government and needed an urgent effort to deal with the issue.

Earlier, reports sent to the federal food ministry by intelligence agencies and mill owners suggested that 2.1 million tons of flour will cross into Afghanistan from Pakistan this year compared to just 0.6 million tons last year, indicating that the present atta crisis could persist for another two-and-a-half months.

The ministry of food, agriculture and livestock (Minfal) had received two separate reports from para-military forces deputed along the Pakistan-Afghan border and the Sindh-based flour mills.

After going through both the reports, Minfal had warned the government that the present crisis could persist till the end of February and even early March next year until the new wheat crop is harvested in Sindh and Barani areas.

It is stated that there was a huge difference between the statistics of the intelligence report and the data provided by the mill owners.

The intelligence report revealed that this year 1.6 million tons of flour would be exported to Afghanistan, about one million tons more than that of last year.

According to this report, about 133,000 tons of flour was being supplied to Afghanistan every month compared to the official statistics according to which only 50,000 tons of flour is exported to the neighbouring country each month.

The report submitted by millers, however, revealed that a minimum of 2.1 million tons of flour might be supplied to Kabul this year: some 175,000 tons monthly and 1.5 million tons more than last year’s.

Millers had also reportedly informed the government that the final figures for the year could even cross the 2.2 million mark keeping in view the increased demand of atta in Afghanistan in winter season that could last till March.

Both the reports suggested that this year there would be at least three times increase in flour export to Afghanistan from Pakistan. It was also stated that the final 12-month flour export figures to Afghanistan could even jump up to 2.4 million tons, and, no doubt it was having repercussions on domestic consumers.