PESHAWAR, March 22: The provision of wheat to local flour mills against their daily quota from the official godowns - at rates much less than the open market price of wheat - has not benefited atta consumers as the flour millers are not transferring benefit of price difference to atta buyers, according to market sources.

Atta bags of 20 kg each transported from Punjab to local markets range between Rs260 and Rs270, while the bags of wheat flour supplied from local mills are also being sold at the same price.

The provincial government releases 50 to 60 wheat bags of 100 kg each to each of the flour mills of the NWFP against their officially-determined daily wheat crushing quota.

Flour millers said were charged Rs912 per bag of 100 kg wheat supplied from official godowns. Officials of the Food Directorate, NWFP, said that the government charged them about Rs875 per 100 kg bag of wheat supplied from the official godown whereas the open market rate of wheat bags of 100 kg each, said the market forces, ranged between Rs1100 and Rs1200 per bag.

In this way, the government is providing wheat to local millers from its stocks of wheat at a price much less than the prevalent market price of the commodity.

Though the millers, said the sources, were being supplied wheat at subsidized rates from the official godowns, they were not passing on its resultant benefit to atta consumers.

"Local flour millers can hardly compete with the prices of Punjab's atta being sold in the local markets, hence it is not possible for them to pass on the benefit of subsidy to the consumers, conceded a senior official of the provincial government when approached by Dawn.

Mr Naeem But, the chairman of the NWFP Flours Mills Association, when contacted, said that local flour mills were being supplied negligible quantity of wheat from the official godowns.

He said the government of Punjab was releasing 400 bags of wheat to each of the mills situated in the area under its jurisdiction, while the flour mills in the NWFP were being provided between 40 and 50 bags of wheat on daily basis.

"We could hardly sustain the situation with this much of negligible releases from the official godowns, making us to rely on purchasing wheat from the open market at an exorbitantly high price," said Mr But.

He said the NWFP millers were unable to transfer the benefit of wheat subsidy to the atta consumers because they were hardly meeting their production costs with the help of the subsidy provided by the provincial government - a point also acknowledged by the authorities of the NWFP Food Directorate.

"If we start passing on the benefit of price difference resulted by subsidy on wheat to atta consumers we would not be able to compete with Punjab's wheat flour even in Peshawar's markets," said a miller.

However, he expressed the hope that prices of wheat flour would decrease in the near future as wheat crop harvesting season in Sindh had commenced and the local wheat yield would also be marketed in a couple of weeks.

He claimed that the prices of atta had already recorded a sharp decline and bags of wheat flour of 20 kg each were being sold at a price of Rs220 each. However, according to atta consumers, the price still ranged between Rs260 and Rs270 per 20 kg bag.