ISLAMABAD, Oct 23: The government on Thursday decided to release 50,000 tons of sugar in the market following an increase of Rs10 per kg in its price over the past few weeks.

The average retail price has jumped up to over Rs40 from Rs27 a few months ago.

The decision was taken in a meeting of the economy monitoring committee (EMC). The meeting was presided over by Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Shaukat Tareen.

The ministry of food, agriculture and livestock (Minfal) informed the committee that at present the government possessed 3.4 million tons of wheat stocks that could adequately meet local demand.

Mr Tareen directed Minfal to ensure adequate wheat supply to the NWFP to help the province meet ongoing shortages. The price of a 20kg bag of flour has shot up to Rs800 in the province.

A Minfal official said that from July to November the total wheat arrivals would be around 1.75 million tons and prices in international markets had started coming down.

Minfal further briefed EMC about existing urea demands and possibility of import through a Saudi facility. The committee directed Minfal to complete its homework and submit proposals at the next meeting.

The committee recalled the ministry of petroleum’s earlier briefing on the natural gas load management programme for winter. The programme takes into account sectoral consumption trends, demand-supply projections, peak consumption analysis and sectoral measures for load management.

The programme reflects maximum consumption during winter season for domestic and industrial plus commercial sectors. The programme envisages first priority for domestic and commercial sectors. The total gas demand during the first month of the peak period (December) is likely to be 2,567 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd).

Mr Tareen directed the ministry of petroleum to rationalise gas demand and supply system on national network for working out an out-of-box solution in a way that industry did not suffer.

The ministry was further advised to submit a comprehensive gas load distribution proposal that takes into account needs of all stakeholders.