KARACHI, July 6: Retailers appear sceptical about the Utility Stores Corporation’s plan of providing sugar at Re1 per kg less than the prevailing wholesale rate. They term it unfeasible and say only a few retailers, living nearby the Korangi area, will enjoy this benefit.

They say currently there are three varieties of sugar. Indian sweetener sells at Rs33.50 per kg, Brazilian sugar at Rs34.50 and Khaleej and local mills’ sugar is available at Rs35 per kg at the wholesale level in Jodia Bazar, the hub of country’s essential commodities, they say, adding: “How the USC officials will determine the actual wholesale rate of sugar prevailing in the market where fluctuation in rates occurs on daily basis?”

“It is strange on the part of the USC as to why it is reluctant in offering sugar at Rs27.50 per kg to small retailers which is available at its countrywide chain of outlets for the general public,” they say.

Karachi Retailers Grocers Group general-secretary Mohammad Farid Qureishi said the retailers operating in districts central, west and south, etc., would refrain from going to Korangi to buy a single commodity. The retailers usually buy all the essential items from Jodia Bazar by paying Rs400-600 as fare per Suzuki van. “It is practically unfeasible for the retailers to load a single commodity from a remote area.”

Transporters will charge over Rs600 for bringing sugar from Korangi to other districts that means a retailer will pay Rs1.20-2.00 per kg as transportation cost, he adds.

He said under the USC plan a small retailer could not buy more than 10 bags of 50 kg in a period of just one month. However, the retailer can buy less quantity but the time period is one month for a single deal. Mr Farid said only those shopkeepers would utilise the benefit who lived nearby Korangi warehouse of the USC.

“The USC should offer sugar below Rs30 per kg. Only then the retailers may think of lifting the commodity from Korangi. Instead of providing sugar from only one source, the USC should consider opening warehouses in 18 towns of the city so that it could prove beneficial for the consumers,” Mr Farid remarked.

Anis Majeed, adviser to the Karachi Wholesale Grocers Association, did not see any benefit for the consumers from the USC plan. He said transporters charged Rs500-600 for a loaded Suzuki van carrying various commodities from Jodia Bazar to Saddar, Tariq Road, Nazimabad, etc.

“I think lifting sugar from the Korangi warehouse will cost at least Rs2 per kg in terms of transportation cost, which is not feasible for the retailers,” he said.

Masood Alam Niazi, manager, USC Sindh-Balochistan Zone, however, tried to defend the scheme, saying it is basically aimed at facilitating small traders. He said small shopkeepers would benefit from the USC offer when sugar would become costlier in the wholesale market. “There will be no element of black marketing at the Korangi warehouse as compared to the open market.”

When asked why the USC has not offered sugar at Rs27.50 per kg to the small retailers, he said he could not speak on this issue as it was a government policy to provide sugar below Re1 per kg from the prevailing wholesale rate.

He also did not agree that a selected group of retailers living nearby Korangi will benefit. “When all the retailers of the city purchase the commodity from Jodia Bazar then what is harm in lifting sugar from the Korangi warehouse. There is a possibility that some two to three retailers make a pool and lift the commodity from Korangi in order share burden of transportation charges,” he added.

He said some small retailers had enquired about the procedure at the USC warehouse in the Korangi Industrial Area on Thursday and they were being asked to provide copies of trade licence and CNIC. “They can purchase sugar either through cash or pay order or demand draft,” he said, adding that the wholesale rate of sugar in the open market moves upward and downward by just a few paisas and not by rupees.

When asked how small traders could benefit when majority of traders operate without licence in the city, he said it did not take too much time to make a trade licence.