LAHORE, Nov 3: The Punjab government has asked the PCSIR to help it fix sugar price by calculating its cost to millers, keeping in view the cane price and recovery of sucrose from it.

Punjab Cane Commissioner Abdul Ghafoor Bhatti told Dawn here on Friday that the decision would help remove the controversy (about the actual cost of sugar) created by the millers and farmers.

The farmers say that millers pay them far less than the actual sugar cost but earn huge profits. The millers, however, claim that costly cane had eaten into their profits, leaving them with little margin.

“The Pakistan Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, with its extensive scientific knowledge, can clear this confusion and help the government fix the sugar price,” the cane commissioner hoped.

The commissioner also convened a meeting of farmers’ bodies on Friday in a bid to allay their fears about the delay in cane crushing and hammer out issues related to cane and sugar prices.

The Kissan Board Pakistan, however, has refused to withdraw its countrywide protest drive, saying that delay in crushing season is a reason enough to stick to its protest plan. It in fact took out a protest rally on Friday in front of the Lahore Press Club.

“The government has assured farmers that the crushing will start from Nov 15. Out of 40 mills in Punjab, 25 have already intimated us that they are switching on their units on by mid-November and the farmers need not worry,” Mr Bhatti told Dawn after the meeting.

He said the farmers had three issues: the date of cane crushing, price of cane and linking it to the price of sugar.

The government, according to him, has already explained its point of view on these issues. “It has assured the farmers that millers will be made to start crushing by mid-November though, under the Cane Crushing Act, they can delay it till 30th.”

About the cane price, he said the government had taken a cue from the Agriculture Price Commission, which recommended a price of Rs58 per maund, and the government put it at Rs60.

“About linking the sugar price to that of cane, the provincial government will be writing to the PCSIR to determine the price of sugar, keeping in view the price of cane and recovery rate.”

Kissan Board Pakistan president Sadiq Khan Khaqwani told Dawn that the board had neither been informed about any meeting nor invited to it.

He contested the cane commissioner’s claim that Price Commission had recommended cane price of Rs58 per maund. “The board had documentary evidence of commission suggesting a price of Rs73.53 per maund,” he said.

He explained that the KBP strike call was meant to protest 15 days delay in crushing season which should have been started from Nov 1. “Hence the board will go ahead with its strike plan from Nov 10.”

About linking sugar price to cane’s, he said that Pakistan Sugar Mills Association had itself submitted a price formula to the government last year. According to that formula, it agreed to fix sugar price at Rs20 per kg if the cane price was Rs40 per maund. It also agreed to increase the price of cane by Rs3 per maund if the government increased the price of sugar by Re1. By that calculation, made by the PSMA, the price of sugar should not go beyond Rs28 per kg if the cane price was Rs60 per maund. “If the government is ready to follow this formula, the board can consider withdrawing its strike call,” he said.

Ibrahim Mughal of AgriForum, who attended the meeting, said that influential millers lobby was bent upon exploiting every one in the country, be it farmers or consumers. “Since most of the millers are in the government, they take decisions keeping in view their interest and then force them upon everyone.”

The government, he said, was itself the largest beneficiary of the sugar price hike — it would be collecting a sales tax of Rs13 billion against the budgetary projection of Rs7 billion. “It is collecting this money at the cost of farmers who will be suffering a loss Rs3.5 billion because of low cane price.”

He said that cane was sown on around 2.4 million acres in the country. Out of these 2.4 million acres, 700,000 acres were used for wheat sowing. “If the cane is harvested late, the final yield of wheat will also suffer,” he warned.

Meanwhile, the Kissan Board Pakistan on Friday held a protest rally in front of the Lahore Press Club, which was led by its secretary-general Sardar Zafar Hussain Khan and senior vice-president Ch Nisar Ahmad.