MARDAN, Nov 10: District Sweets and Bakers Association on Wednesday threatened to shut down their business if the government failed to control rising sugar prices within a week as it was becoming difficult for them to sell sweets according to old prices fixed by the government.

Talking to this correspondent, district president of the association Ghulam Habib said that high price and low supply of sugar had forced the bakers to increase prices of sweets.

He said that a 50kg sugar bag was available at Rs4,000 two weeks ago, which was now selling at Rs5,700 owing to the abrupt rise in sugar price across the country.

He said that keeping in view the rise in petroleum prices, power outages and record surge in sugar price the association could not maintain old prices, as cost of sweets' preparation had also gone up.

He regretted that despite all these problems faced by the bakery owners, the district administration was imposing heavy fines on retailers not following fixed prices of the government.

“If the government wants the bakeries to provide sweets and other items to people on lower rates, it should ensure availability of sugar to the bakers on two-week-old rates of Rs80/kg,” said Mr Habib.

He alleged that high government officials and millers had ganged up to loot people of this country, as nobody could see a system of governance to keep check on sugar millers.

When Dawn contacted Mardan DCO Mohammad Adil Khan, he said that the government would not bow to the bakers' threat of a strike call. He said the sugar prices had surged throughout the country, but sweets and bakers association of only Mardan was demanding increase in prices of sweet items.

The DCO warned that strict action would be taken against sellers found violating the prices of sweets and other bakery items fixed by the government.