ISLAMABAD, July 19: The import of five essential items from India allowed in the first week of May has not materialized even after the passage of 75 days and prices of some of these items have almost doubled since.

Informed sources told Dawn on Tuesday that New Delhi was unwilling to facilitate the import unless Islamabad granted it transit facility to export Indian products to Afghanistan through land route.

So far, only 200 heads of livestock through land route to Lahore and about 60 containers of beef and mutton through ships to Karachi have been imported, said Economic Adviser to Prime Minister Dr Ashfaq Hassan Khan.

The import of the rest of items like onion, potato, tomato and garlic has not taken place so far. As a result, the potato prices have increased from Rs15 per kg in May to Rs40-45 per kg now. The prices of garlic have increased to Rs90-100 per kg against Rs40-42 per kg in May.

However, the prices of tomato and onions have either stabilized or slightly reduced.

When asked whether more than 150 animals being imported by a private party from India had been stuck up at the Wahga border due to quarantine problems, Dr Ashfaq said the first consignment of about 200 animals had reached Pakistan.

He said big hotels in Karachi had already imported in the past few days 60-65 containers of beef and mutton through ships, each containing 11-12 tons of meat. The landed cost of both beef and mutton in Karachi averaged Rs80-82 per kg, he said.

He claimed that these imports had already helped contain the rising trend in meat prices as the average price of mutton had declined from Rs199 per kg to Rs190-195 per kg.

Sources in the statistics division said there had been a lot of correspondence between Pakistan and India on the matter. Finally, Indian authorities informed the Pakistanis that there was no need for a fresh permission for such imports because most of these items were already in the active trade list.

A meeting presided over by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on May 3 had allowed duty- and tax-free import of five essential commodities, including one million heads of livestock for meat per year, from India at an estimated cost of over $40 million through rail and land routes. The decision was aimed at containing rising inflation.

Meanwhile, sugar prices have increased to Rs32 per kg in the wholesale market against its production cost of Rs14 per kg. The sugar prices were slightly over Rs18 per kg in October 2004.

Market sources said a group of five-six sugar manufacturers had purchased a bulk quantity of the commodity from the UAE, causing an increase in its prices in the international market as normally very limited stocks are available in Dubai.

The government in the meanwhile decided to import refined sugar through the Trading Corporation of Pakistan at the rate of 100,000 tons per month for three months.

Earlier, the TCP had procured about 600,000 tons of sugar from the market at a cost of Rs17 per kg and started selling it to the general public through the Utility Stores Corporation at Rs23 per kg.

The sources said that the landed cost of sugar in Karachi would be around Rs25-26 and inland transportation and storage cost would add another Rs2-3 per kg to the retail price. Hence the private sector price of Rs32-33 would automatically stand legalized.