KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah on Tuesday gave his approval for retention of the issue price of wheat i.e. Rs3,450 per 100 kilograms for the current financial year, observing that it was still lower than in other provinces.

Presiding over a meeting at the CM House, the chief minister said that maintaining the issue price of wheat at this level would help the wheat flour prices in the interest of the general public. To ensure this, he added, the government would have to increase wheat subsidy from Rs3 billion to Rs4.7 billion..

He informed participants in the meeting that the provincial government had already spent Rs1 billion on the distribution of wheat among the drought-hit people of Tharparkar free of cost and decided to set aside an equal amount to continue the scheme.

Mr Shah directed the officials concerned to keep a strict check on flour prices across Sindh and see that consumers were getting the commodity at the existing rates. He also ordered a strict vigilance on inter-province movement and smuggling of wheat.

Earlier, food secretary Saeed Awan briefed the meeting about position of wheat procurement, available stocks, province-wise issue prices, flour prices and subsidy.

He said that as against a target of 1.3 million tonnes, his department had already procured 1.216 million tonnes of wheat. He said a stock sufficient to meet the province’s requirement was available with the department.

Published in Dawn, September 17th, 2014