There is a shortage of 840,000 tons of sugar in the country and the government has allowed private sector to import raw sugar without regulatory duty. According to government strategy 2010-11," private sector has been allowed to import raw sugar and withdrawn 25 percent regulatory duty on it. In future, Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) will have no role in sugar import."
The Senate Standing Committee on Industries and Production has shown concern over ruling out of TCP in the import of sugar in future and recommended that the government must take an assurance from the private sector to meet domestic sugar demand at a reasonable price. In this regard, it recommended that the government must formulate a mechanism to monitor the private sector.
The committee met with Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar of PML-N in the chair in the Parliament House on Thursday. Federal and State Ministers for Industries and Production Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani and Dr Ayatullah Durrani participated in the meeting. Senators Haroon Akhtar Khan, Mrs Semeen Siddiqui, Adnan Khan and Secretary to the Ministry of Industries and Production, Abdul Ghaffar Soomro also attended the meeting.
The committee discussed the current implementation status of National Sugar Policy. Secretary to the Ministry of Industries and Production, Abdul Ghaffar Soomro told the Committee that there is shortfall of 0.84 million tons of sugar, at present, in the country. He said the crushing season of sugar mills is ongoing which will continue till the end of March 2011. The production of sugarcane is 4.3 million tons while the production of sugar is 3.46 million tons during 2010-11, he said.
"We have written a letter to the Ministry of Commerce to import sugar and to encourage private sector to meet this gap," he said. The secretary said the TCP could not reduce this gap due to financial constraints of the government. The ECC has approved Strategy 2010-11 in which the government has allowed the private sector to import duty-free raw sugar and imposed a ban on TCP for future.
Standing Committee Chairman Ishaq Dar recommended that as the government has withdrawn 25 percent regulatory duty it must get an assurance from the private sector to meet domestic demand at a price affordable by the common man. During the briefing, the Secretary told the committee that the price of sugarcane is determined by the free market and not regularised by the government. He said that Punjab government announced indicative rate of sugarcane at Rs 125/40-kg while actual rate is Rs 208/40-kg; Sindh announced an indicative rate of Rs 127/40-kg whereas actual rate was Rs 200/40-kg and KPK government indicative rate was Rs 125/40-kg while actual rate is Rs 240/40-kg.
The chairman recommended that the government should regularise the price of sugarcane across the country. Minister of State for Industries and Production Dr Ayatullah Durrani proposed to the committee that the government should lift the condition of obtaining a No Objection Certificate (NOC) for installing small sugar mills and allow investment by overseas Pakistanis at union council level to effectively combat the sugar Mafia.
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