ISLAMABAD, April 28: While the country continues to face the sugar crisis, the commerce ministry is sitting over a stock of 27,000 bags of imported sugar for the past over one year, it is learnt.

The sugar has been lying all this time at the Karachi Port Trust (KPT) waiting for the ministry to complete its endless bureaucratic procedures.

The sources said that in the meantime, the stocks had accumulated demurrage worth more than the original cost of import.

“The high-ups in the ministry have apparently made it a matter of personal ego to punish the importers for alleged irregularities in utter disregard of the fact that the release of these stocks could contribute in easing the shortage of sugar in the market to the benefit of the general public,”, the sources said.

The sugar was imported from India and landed in Karachi on April 14, 2005. According to the ministry, the importers played it smart and placed the orders at a time when its import was banned.

The importer admitted the fact and took the plea that he had contracted the deal in anticipation and banking on inside market reports that the government had decided to lift the ban. More significantly, there was speculation that the government would allow the import from anywhere in the world including India.

By June 2005, the importer faced the threat of confiscation of the stocks by the ministry while the matter was being negotiated, the government decided to allow import of sugar from anywhere in the world including India. The importer hoped that his consignment too would be regularised by the ministry after payment of some penalties.

However, defying all logic, the minister took a decision in August 2005 to allow re-export. Later this permission was also withheld after the ministry accused the importer of tampering with the files, an allegation the importer denied while arguing that the files were in possession of the ministry all the time.

Subsequent negotiations had also failed to resolve the issue. The importer offered to pay usual penalties for the waiver and cited various instances of commerce ministry’s waivers in similar circumstances.

The ministry, however, remained unconvinced that the release of the consignment would provide some relief more to consumers than any one else.