LAHORE, May 4: The Punjab food department on Tuesday started issuing notices to wheat hoarders to either surrender 50 per cent of their stocks or risk total confiscation. The move followed receipt of declaration of stocks from southern part of the province which revealed large-scale hoarding by unlicensed investors.
According to department officials, in the Rahim Yar Khan district alone, over 200,000 tons of stocks were declared. Even if half of them are with millers whom the government has spared so far, over 100,000 tons are lying with stockists whom the food department is targeting.
Under the Food Act, the department is entitled to seize even the premises where the commodity is stocked, they pointed out. So, there is no way the government can spare these stockists who appear from no where with huge investments and disturb food security of the country, they said.
They hope that in the coming few days, wheat arrival at centres would increase by 15 to 20 per cent because of these notices and the sunny days. If the department reaches a figure of 100,000 tons for the next week or so, it would be easily crossing the two-million-ton mark.
Arrival may then start sliding, but the private market will experience a slump once department crosses that mark. By that time, its raids on private hoards would also start yielding results, which should be enough to make up for the shortfall.
The government is determined to arrive at the figure of 3.5 million tons for food security and there would be no compromise on it.
Once Punjab achieves that figure, it would not only be able to take care of provincial needs but also supplement supplies to other province. But if its procurement slumps to 2.5 million tons, it cannot guarantee supplies to other federating units.
Passco is mandated to take care of other provinces and it has been charged with procuring around 1.4 million tons specifically for that purpose. Punjab would only contribute to other provinces' stocks after meeting its own requirements, they said.
The Punjab food department has based its optimism about achieving the target on what it claims to be some 40 per cent unthrashed wheat still in the field. The crucial districts of central Punjab are just beginning to thrash wheat after the wet spell. A huge quantity of wheat is still in the field and the department hopes to get a lion's share of it.
Meanwhile, the two government agencies procured 1.9 million tons of wheat till Tuesday, with the Punjab Food Department touching 1.4 million and the Pakistan Agriculture Storage and Services Corporation (Passco) 515,000 tons.
Though the Passco officials hope to reach the figure of one million tons by the end of current procurement season against a target of 1.4 million tons, officials of the food department have expressed their optimism and determination to achieve the target.
Passco has the potential to procure one million tons of wheat against its target of 1.4 million. All the healthy areas are with the Punjab food department and precisely for this reason, it is finding it difficult to achieve the target.
The Pakistan Flour Mills Association on Tuesday resented what it called food department's highhandedness in not allowing millers to purchase stocks agreed between the millers and the department. In a press statement, the millers threatened to go on strike if the department "failed to mend its ways".