ISLAMABAD: A National Assembly committee was told on Monday that the Utility Stores Corporation (USC) had not complied with the decision of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) since it had failed to procure sugar for sale to consumers from its outlets.

The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s Asad Umer, who presided over the meeting of the NA’s standing committee on industries and production, asked the ministry to refer the case to the Competition Commission of Pakistan, the regulatory body which was prima-facie mandated to act against cartelisation during the bidding process of sugar.

Secretary of industries and production, Arif Azim, informed the meeting that the ECC, in a meeting in April, had directed the Trading Corporation of Pakistan to stop procurement of sugar for the USC and asked the corporation to procure sugar itself.

The USC floated five tenders for sugar procurement but the response was discouraging, he said, adding that the rates received were higher than the retail market prices. As a result, all tenders were scraped excepting one and the USC could not procure sugar.

The USC sold sugar to consumers at the rate of Rs58 per kg during Ramazan though the market price, as per sensitive price indicator, was Rs65 per kg.

Published in Dawn, July 28th, 2015

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