ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court accepted on Friday an interim arrangement proposed by the government for ensuring supply of sugar to domestic consumers at Rs40 per kg across the country, but cautioned that there should be no more complaints regarding availability.

‘From now on there should be no complaint regarding supply of the sweetener,’ observed a three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Justice Jawwad S. Khawaja and Justice Ghulam Rabbani, which had taken up identical appeals of the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association and the Punjab Sugar Association against a verdict of the Lahore High Court requiring the sale of sugar at Rs40 per kg.

The court also ordered the sugar mills to supply the commodity at the agreed ratio of 30 for domestic consumers and 70 for industry, without prejudice and discontinuation.

Acting Attorney General Shah Khawar informed the court at the outset about a meeting of stakeholders held on Oct 29 to finalise the mechanism that required sugar mills to release 30 per cent of the available stock for domestic consumption and the remaining 70 per cent for industrial consumption on a daily basis.

The draft proposal said the arrangement would be monitored and regulated by provincial governments while the Draft Sugar Policy 2009-10 would also be considered next week by a meeting of the cabinet to be presided over by Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani and attended also by chief ministers.

Each provincial government will ensure supply of sugar for domestic consumers through its distribution mechanism and would also monitor the system and improve it.

About the average daily consumption of sugar, the court was informed that Punjab consumed 6,000 metric tons, Sindh 2,400 metric tons, NWFP and Fata 2000 metric tons and Balochistan/AJK/Gilgit-Baltistan/Islamabad 1,000 metric tons.

The acting attorney general informed the court about sugar stock available on Oct 26, 2009; in the Punjab it was 266,000 metric tons, Sindh 56,000 metric tons and NWFP 56,000 metric tons. These stocks are enough to last till Nov 30, 2009.

The meeting had also decided that the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) would provide back-up support to domestic consumers for deficient provinces as per need from the available stock.

The court adjourned the hearing for a date to be decided later.