ISLAMABAD, Nov 28: The government has decided to fix wheat procurement target at four million tons by the public sector in the forthcoming harvesting season of the crop.

The private sector will be encouraged to operate for wheat procurement by allowing capital availability through the State Bank with low 12 per cent mark-up rate.

It is also decided that there will be no restrictions on inter-provincial and inter-district movements of the commodity and the export of wheat is also allowed by both public and private sectors.

This was disclosed by Wheat Commissioner Abdul Qadir Baloch while talking to APP here on Wednesday. He said the wheat procurement targets for the public sector during last year (2000-2001) was initially fixed at 2m tons. However, the government enhanced the targets to 3m tons and finally to 4 million tons.—APP