ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Commerce has notified conditions for the export of 1.5 million tonnes of sugar. This is in addition to the earlier decision by the government to allow the export of 0.5m tonnes of sugar last month.

The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) will not issue any export quota to sugar mills that failed to fulfil all conditions notified by the commerce ministry.

A quota will be issued only to those sugar mills that started cane-crushing by Nov 30 and continued thereafter. Timely payments for the procurement of sugarcane are also mandatory.

An inter-ministerial committee will provide estimates about surplus sugar quantities after getting results of the 2017-18 crushing season by April 2018, which might be allowed for exports in one go by the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC).

The federal government will not provide any freight subsidy for sugar exports after the 2017-18 crushing season. It was notified that the provinces should develop their own policies for freight support in the future.

The ECC further directed the Ministry of Industries and Production to work out the actual cost of sugar production to determine its price and submit a report to the committee for consideration.

The SBP should arrange, according to the ministry’s order, via its website the full disclosure of the record of quota allocation and actual exports.

According to the order, freight support was linked with the international price of sugar. The current cash support was calculated by considering the cost of local sugar production as arrived at by the Ministry of Industries and Production.

Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has constituted a committee that will meet during the first week of every month to review the sugar stock, export and price situation.

In the case of any abnormal increase in the domestic price of sugar from the level of Rs54.87 per kilogram recorded on Sept 7, the committee will ask the ECC to halt sugar exports.

Published in Dawn, December 9th, 2017