LAHORE, Feb 8: The supply problems continued to hit the sugar market on Wednesday with queues outside utility stores getting longer and the retail price going up by Re1 per kg.

The price of sugar, which went up by Rs180 per 100 kg in the wholesale market on Monday, started affecting the retail market with a rupee’s increase.

“It is getting worse by the day,” said a consumer standing outside a utility store in the city. “Unfortunately the government, instead of taking some concrete steps, seems content with making empty claims. This may project the government as doing something, but will not help consumers in any way,” he said.

“There are only 350 utility stores in the country and all of them are not functional,” said another consumer. How could one expect these to meet the requirement of the entire country, he said, and added: “The government is hoodwinking the people by saying that they can get sugar from these stores.

“The official inaction stems from the fact that most of the mills belong to the ruling elite and obviously no government can move against itself,” he said.

The government had sufficient stocks to ease the market, said a market analyst. But it did not know how to take it to the people. Utility stores had a limited presence in the country and they could not help a lot. The government, he said, could not supply this sugar to the open market because it might find way to hoarders’ stocks and fail to affect the market.