PESHAWAR, April 20: The Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) has accused that the government had established its own monopoly on trade of wheat flour and had stopped the commodity’s supply to traders which they termed sheer injustice.

The chamber also urged the government to lift the ban on export of flour to Afghanistan and Central Asian Republics. The demand was made at a meeting of the Senate’s standing committee on industries, production and special initiatives, held at the chamber’s office here on Saturday. The meeting was presided over by committee chairperson Senator Anisa Zeb Tahirkheli.

SCCI president Mohammad Asif submitted some proposals on national budget and trade policy to the committee. He also presented recommendations prepared by the Economic and Investment Working Group for revival of the NWFP economy.He said the people of the province were being faced with acute shortage of wheat flour, which he said was a result of the ban slapped by the government of Punjab on the inter-provincial transportation of the commodity.

This decision on part of the Punjab government, he said, was affecting the relations among the federating units. He said the chamber had recommended increase in the wheat quota of flour mills and allowing them to open wheat from the open market.

The recommendations presented by the SCCI chief calls for bringing agriculture, real estate, services sector, reforms in tax system and cut in the ratio of sales, income taxes and customs duties to expand the tax net. He also recommended expansion of facilities like tax refund, cut in custom tariff on raw materials and granting of special incentives to local pharmaceutical industries in head of sales tax for development of local pharmaceutical, carpet and textile industries.