KARACHI, Nov 15: The Trading Corporation of Pakistan received on Saturday 23 bids from sugar mills for the procurement of 100,000 tons of sugar from the unsold stock of 2002-03 sugarcane crop.

Officials said that the lowest bid was received from a Punjab based sugar mill that offered about Rs15,600 per ton for 16,000 tons, while the rest of the bids ranged Rs17,050 to Rs17,200 a ton. A senior official indicated the acceptance of the lowest bid and said: “We are negotiating with the other participating mills to bring down their price to Rs15,600-Rs16,000 a ton,” an official said.

The TCP has received eight bids from sugar mills in Sindh, one in NWFP and 15 in Punjab. Some 71 sugar mills in Sindh, NWFP and Punjab reported 481,000 tons of unsold sugar stock with them at the beginning of this month. There were 38 operational sugar mills in Punjab, which reported 338,000 unsold stock with them. Five of six mills in NWFP have 52,500 tons of unsold sugar stock and 28 out of 32 mills in Sindh reported 90,584 tons of sugar stock.

The TCP has fixed a minimum balance of 3,000 tons stock from the 2002-03 crop for eligibility of the sugar mills to participate in the bidding. The minimum quantity for any mill to bid has also been fixed at 3,000 tons.

Successful bidder will receive 85 per cent of amount of their sugar stock sold to the TCP sometimes next week. The cane commissioners in Punjab and Sindh will ensure that sugar mills are paying dues to the growers. The remaining 15 per cent of the amount would be paid later.

Nine commercial banks — nationalized and private banks — are involved in providing about Rs2 billion finance to the TCP for the procurement of sugar. The officials expect to get loan from these banks at less than two per cent return.