ISLAMABAD, Dec 28: The government is considering import of another two million tons of wheat fearing its shortage and price hike in March and April, official sources told Dawn here on Tuesday.

With its present ratio of consumption, they said, the government feared that wheat shortage could hit the country two months prior to the harvest season which usually started in the end of April in Sindh and Punjab and a month later in NWFP.

"That is why the government is thinking over the issue and wants to balance the consumption and supply of wheat by further importing the commodity," the sources said.

Some officials were of the view that smuggling of wheat to Afghanistan had further increased after the government recently imposed a 15 per cent regulatory duty on the export of wheat.

They said the wheat mafia was busy in exploring new routes to smuggle wheat to Afghanistan where demand was growing for the commodity. The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet headed by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz had, on December 9, approved import of 500,000 tons of wheat.

The government had, earlier, imported one million tons of wheat. With the import of another two million tons, the government's total import for this year would touch the figure of 3.5 million tons.

Sources said the government could also procure wheat from the private parties having stocks to avoid import of additional wheat. However, they said, the private stock holders and the government did not see eye to eye regarding fixing of the rate of wheat, that's why it seemed impossible that the government would opt for buying wheat from the private parties.

The Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) has so far completed import of one million tons and is yet to bring home another half a million, they said. According the ECC's figures as on December 5, Punjab possessed wheat stock of 665,125 tons, Sindh 220,079 tons, NWFP 97,830 and Balochistan 120,447 tons.

The stock was considered to be sufficient for 111 days in Punjab, 40 days in Sindh, 20 days in NWFP, and 120 days in Balochistan. The Pakistan Agriculture Services and Storage Corporation (Passco) had a stock of 277,885 tons.