LAHORE, June 21: The government will not allow export of wheat till its price in the domestic markets drops to the level prevailing during May 2007, the adviser to the ministry of finance Dr Ashfaq Hassan Khan said.

Talking to reporters on Thursday here he said the government would ensure that the wheat prices stay at their May level for a very long time before its export is allowed.

He said that the poor wheat harvest in a number of countries, including Australia, United States and India had caused the wheat prices to soar to very high levels in the global markets. He alleged that some unscrupulous people in the private sector had tried to benefit from this situation by procuring the grain from the open market at a price higher than the minimum support price of Rs425 per maund for export and made huge profits.

The government claimed that the country had reaped a record bumper wheat crop of 23.5 million tons, up by 1.2 million tons from last year. “Let the benefit of a good crop reach the common man in the country,” he said.

It was on Feb 22 this year that the government allowed export of wheat in view of bumper production. But the decision was reversed and the ban was re-imposed as the wheat and flour prices began to rise sharply in the domestic market after the announcement of the decision.

The flour prices are yet to come down to their previous levels in spite of the ban on the wheat export.

The adviser said the incidence of poverty in Pakistan had fallen to 23.9 per cent and some 12.8 million people in the country had come out of poverty during 2001-05. Of them, 10.5 million people belonged to the rural areas.

He said the food inflation stood at 10.2 per cent against 16 per cent during the 1990s. “Food inflation is a worldwide phenomenon and in China it had been estimated at 8.3 per cent against core inflation of 1.1 per cent. He was hopeful that the food inflation would be controlled and restricted to 6.5 per cent during the next fiscal year starting from July 1.