PESHAWAR, Dec 7: The government of the North-West Frontier Province will procure 200,000 tonnes of wheat from the market in order to increase the quota for flour mills. A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting between officials of the provincial government and office-bearers of the All-Pakistan Flour Mills Association here the other day.

According to Naeem Butt, the chairman of the association, daily release of 5,000 tonnes of wheat to flour mills from the government stock can help ease the existing flour crisis in the province.

He said currently the NWFP food department issued a daily quota of 1,500 tonnes of wheat to 100 mills. “This quantity is barely able to keep flour mills operating for two hours. It is insufficient to help alleviate the current crisis,” he said.

Mr Butt explained that the government had assured the owners of flour mills that their daily quota would be increased, enabling them to bring the prices down.

According to him, the government provides them wheat at a cheaper rate as compared to the stock available in the market. At present, they are supposed to sell flour at Rs305 per 20-kg bag.

But consumers and dealers complained that most of the commodity was exported to Afghanistan. To counter this practice, the provincial government had banned export of wheat to Afghanistan and seized more than a dozen trucks a few days ago.

According to Mr Butt, the government had also agreed to lift the ban because export of flour to Afghanistan was allowed under the federal trade policy.

The government had recently imposed a 35-per cent regulatory duty on it. “Levying of duty on flour export to Afghanistan reflects the government policy that it doesn’t want to reduce the supply across the border and restricting its movement is completely illegal,” he maintained.

Meanwhile, the city district government has finalised arrangements for providing flour to flour mills at subsidised rates through fair price shops to be set up on the town/council basis.

Haji Ghulam Ali, the district nazim, told Dawn that each flour mill would be given 500 bags of wheat daily, enabling them to produce 12,000 bags of 20kg.

He claimed that the flour millers did not supply subsidised wheat to the local market and exported the whole stock to Afghanistan, earning a hefty profit.

He, however, clarified that now the district administration would be distributing wheat stock on its own.