LAHORE: In a bid to control and stabilise sugar prices, the provincial authorities have begun directing millers to sell in the open market a ‘certain amount’ of the sweetener they produced during the recently-ended season.

In case of refusal of the mills to comply with the direction, deputy commissioners are being authorised to lift the same amount of sugar from the mills in their respective jurisdiction, Dawn has learnt.

The sweetener continues to be sold at Rs100 and above per kg in the city markets on Monday though the government has fixed its ex-mill rate at Rs80 per kg and retail prices at Rs85 per kg.

Cane Commissioner Muhammad Zaman Wattoo insists that the rates have been fixed judiciously after a thorough analysis of the price mechanism.

He says the sugarcane purchasing price in 2018 season was Rs180 per 40kg with Rs52 per kg as the market rate of sugar. The average cane purchase price by the mills for the current season was Rs259 per 40kg, a raise of 43.89pc as compared with that of the 2018 season.

By adding this percentage increase to the per kg sugar retail price it goes up from Rs52 to Rs74.82, and the addition of 9pc hike in sales tax made in the year 2019 takes the retail to Rs81.56 per kg less than Rs85 recently fixed by the government, he says.

As millers are reluctant to sell their produce at the officially fixed rates a crisis-like situation is being faced in the open market and it is likely to worsen during Ramazan, which will set in next week.

Employing the powers entrusted to the cane commissioner and deputy commissioners under the Punjab Sugar Supply Chain Management Order 2021, the government has begun taking action to control the situation. For the purpose, various sugar mills are being directed by the cane commissioner to supply to registered dealers a certain portion of the sugar they have produced, officials say. In case of non-compliance, the DC will take possession of the mentioned portion of sugar from the mills in the jurisdiction of the district, they say.

Sugar dealers in various districts have been asked to deposit money with the banks concerned as their supplies of the sweetener will begin from Tuesday (today), Akbar Butt, president of the Lahore Sugar Dealers Association says.

He says once the sugar is supplied to them at Rs80 per kg they will sell it at Rs82 per kg in the wholesale market so that the retailers may sell the same at Rs85 per kg.

Published in Dawn, April 6th, 2021