ISLAMABAD, April 30: Pakistan has stopped forthwith the export of sugar to Afghanistan following reports that its first lot of 25,000 tons had been smuggled back into the country.

A senior official told Dawn on Wednesday that a decision has been taken by Minister for Commerce Humayun Akhtar Khan over specific reports that the major chunk out of the first batch of 25,000 tons sugar exported to Kabul was sold back in Pakistan.

“The second tender of another 25,000 tons sugar export has been cancelled”, said the official of the commerce ministry.

He did not give the differential between local price and that of the exportable products saying it varied from time to time but admitting that the margin was definitely quite big.

The cabinet had decided about a month ago to allow export of 100,000 tons of sugar which should be procured by Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) on a criteria set by the ministries of finance and commerce.

The two ministries decided that procurement by TCP should be on the basis of open tender of different lots of 25,000 tons each and the same be purchased form the lowest bidders and then exported.

The sources said that first instalment of 25,000 tons was exported to Afghanistan but a major chunk of it returned to Pakistan.

It would now be decided later on as to how TCP would offload the remaining 75,000 tons of sugar procured by it.

Recently, the government of Indonesia finalized import of around 8,000 tons of sugar from Pakistan on a government-to- government level. Pakistan is expecting more orders from Indonesia over the next few weeks.

Pakistan’s sugar industry has told the government that around 0.5 million tons of sugar would be surplus this year which needs to be exported.