ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Sugar Mills Association has urged the Supreme Court to take notice of the large-scale manufacturing of gur in the NWFP and its export to Afghanistan.
 
This is causing loss to the sugar industry and the national exchequer, association chairman Iskander Khan said in a letter to Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.

He said that gur manufacturing had become an industry because it was free from sales tax and income tax.

He said gur sold in local markets up to Rs90 a kilogram, a price higher than that of sugar.

‘Despite Supreme Court’s orders the government has not banned the export of gur,’ he claimed.

‘A large quantity of sugarcane is being diverted to gur manufacturing,’ he said.
 
According to the letter, of the four sugar mills in Peshawar Valley two had closed down because of non-availability of sugarcane.

The others with a capacity to produce 80,000 tons of sugar were on the verge of closure, jeopardizing jobs of 4,000 employees.

He said that India had banned gur production whenever it feared sugar shortage.

Mr Iskander feared Pakistan could face major sugar shortages in 2010 because of the government’s limited resources for importing and distributing sugar.