LAHORE, Nov 16: Besides the goodwill of the people, the subsidized flour during Ramazan promises a monetary return to the government —- it will help dispose of 3.7 million tonne surplus wheat and thus save huge expenses on its storage.

Official sources said on Friday that the storage expenses of wheat were costing the government dearly. There were no more orders from abroad and flour mills had enough stocks bought from the open market.

Therefore, they said, the government planners decided to utilize the occasion to gain double benefits —- saving the expenses on storage and providing relief to the people. “This will benefit the people as well as the government,” they said.

The sources said the millers usually started purchasing wheat from the government in August. But so far only a few had bought the wheat, making the government to look for alternatives to dispose of huge stocks.

They said besides the cost of storage, the government also wanted to ‘rid’ wheat because of two reasons —- if remained unutilized, it would go waste, and what would happen if the province have another bumper crop next year.

“The remarks by the Punjab chief secretary during a briefing after the cabinet meeting on Thursday that the movement of the subsidized flour to other provinces was not prohibited proved that the government wanted to clear its stocks as soon as possible,” the sources said.

They said the government would provide wheat to the millers at reduced rates so that they could sell the flour on subsidized prices.