KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah has directed the Agriculture Department to work out an acceptable sugarcane price to the growers and millers because this year provincial government would not give subsidy on the sugarcane at any cost.
This he said while presiding over a meeting of Agriculture department to discuss new sugarcane price and review overall cane crop, said a statement on Tuesday.
Chief Secretary Sindh Siddique Memon, Principal Secretary to CM Alamuddin Bullo, Secretary Agriculture Shahid Gulzar Shaikh, Secretary Finance Sohail Rajpput and Cane Commissioner Agha Zaheer were also present.
CM Advisor on Law Murtaza Wahab, Secretary Law Mir Mohammad Shaikh and Advocate General Murtaza Wahab specially attended the meeting.
The CM Sindh said that last year there were differences between growers and millers on the issues of sugarcane price. This year he wants to settle this issue (price) amicably, he said.
This time Sindh government would not give any subsidy on its price, he said categorically.
Secretary Agriculture Shahid Gulzar Shaikh briefing the chief minister said that the agriculture minister had held a meeting with the growers to ascertain sugarcane price.
We are still working to work out an acceptable price to the growers as well as the millers, he said.
Chief Secretary Siddique Memon said that there is a scientific method to work out sugarcane price.
According to available data over eight kilograms sugar is produced by crushing a 100 kilograms sugarcane. "We have to work out total expenditures of a mill on the production of one kilogram sugar plus their 15 per cent profit and then have to check the ex-mill price of one kilogram sugar.", he said.
This calculation would help to ascertain the sugar price most likely to be acceptable to both the parties, he said.
The Sindh CM directed the Secretary Agriculture to keep close coordination with growers and millers and also check the sugarcane price in other provinces such as Punjab and Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa.
To a question, the Secretary Agriculture told the Sindh CM that last year sugarcane was grown over an area of 316,749 hectares while this year it has been recorded at 318,000 hectares.
This shows an increase in growth in production and approximately yield would be around 18,858,672 tones, he said.
It may be noted that there were 33 operational sugar mills in the province.
The Sindh CM said that there were some complaints that the subsidy given by the government has not trickled down to the growers completely.
On this, the Secretary Agriculture said that about 98.9 percent amount, Rs 3857.114 million, has been disbursed and the remaining amount of Rs 48.686 million to be given to 555 remaining growers, and added that last year the Sindh government had given a subsidy of Rs 3989.8 million from which 41,047 growers had taken the benefit.
The Sindh CM directed agriculture department to personally monitor disbursement and ensure the amount must reach to the genuine growers.
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