HYDERABAD, Nov 23: Rice millers and exporters have raised concern over procurement of rice by the Pakistan Agriculture Storage and Supply Corporation (Pasco) and apprehended about it coming to the market where buyers have already disappeared because of its reported intervention.

The annual general body meeting of the Sindh Balochistan Rice Mills Association was held at a local hotel which was attended by its president Arif Mahesar, Sindh Abadgar Board president Abdul Majeed Nizamani, Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan president Abdul Aziz Ghaffar and rice growers and millers.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Mahesar said that he was not satisfied with Pasco’s policy of procurement. He said that Pasco should ask millers to deliver rice and the association undertook to ensure that millers would purchase paddy from growers at the rate of Rs700 per 40kg.

“In first phase Pasco says that it will procure 500,000 tones of rice from Sindh-Balochistan region through only 25 mills and in next phase it will double the number of the mills,” he said. He said that the mills did not have the capacity to handle a huge quantity of paddy.

He said that buyers had disappeared from market where Pasco had yet to make its presence felt.

He said that internationally importers were not in a position to import rice because they had yet to dispose of mangoes they had imported.

Mr Nizamani said that Rs200 billion had been pocketed by 21 people in 45 days while their children were landing in Edhi shelter homes. “Did you see any industrialist dropping his child in these centres? It is always poor who cannot make both ends meet,” he said.

He said that levy of indirect taxes had always hit poor people hard in their country where producers and consumers had to face the brunt.

He called for bringing on record minutes of a meeting presided over by the Pasco managing director in Hyderabad recently. He said that the managing director had declared that there was no limit of procurement and he would procure wherever he found the load.

He asked paddy growers to follow required practice of drying their paddy and said that paddy’s moisture issue existed in lower Sindh. “I have seen in lower Sindh that while paddy is standing in water, its harvest is going on”, he said.

Mr Ghaffar criticised Pasco decision to procure one million tons of rice from Sindh and Punjab without clearly defining its objective. “Pasco’s objectives are not clear. With a storage capacity of just 80,000 tones, they have embarked upon storing one million tons of rice. How come?” he asked in a bitter tone.

He said that Pasco had obtained Rs31 billion from the State Bank with 17 per cent mark-up. “This is tax-payers’ money. They should clearly tell us how they will utilise this quantity of rice because there is no room for export on government-to-government basis. It is simply not viable”, he said.

He said that the Pasco decision was going to damage private sector’s trust in international market which had been built over the last two decade. “There will be instability in market when they will purchase rice worth Rs23 per kg at the rate of Rs35 per kg. I do not rule out a political game in that and it is not going to work”, he said. He was critical of rice supplies by millers which, he said, had always been variable. He said that millers normally sent different qualities of rice in trucks. “You must follow Punjab’s millers who have become growers, millers and exporters simultaneously,” he said.