Pakistan Agri Forum Chairman Muhammad Ibrahim Mughal has alleged that flour millers are earning 42 percent profit by buying wheat at Rs 24 per kilogram and selling flour at Rs 34 per kilogram. "Atta Chakki owners are selling flour at Rs 34 per kilogram while flour millers are selling flour at Rs 29 per kilogram but after extracting fine, semolina and other expensive ingredients," Mughal claimed while addressing an association of the flour consumers here on Thursday.
Agri Forum Pakistan Chairman stated that consumers from Lahore only paying Rs 600 million as profit to flour sellers while consumers from big cities such as Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Multan, Peshawar, Quetta, Gujranwala, Faisalabad and others were paying Rs 20 to 25 billion per annum as profit to flour millers.
He further stated that wheat growers were selling wheat to the millers at Rs 21 per kilogram and according to an estimate two million tons of wheat was available with the flour millers. He said that growers were bearing a loss of Rs 10 billion per annum by selling wheat to millers at cheaper rates and on the other hand flour millers were putting an additional burden of Rs 20 billion on the consumers by selling expensive flour.
In his opinion, if the government ensures its writ it could save the masses and growers from a loss of Rs 30 billion per annum. Meanwhile, Secretary Food Punjab Irfan Ali in a statement has said that in order to provide flour to the masses at cheaper rates and stabilise its prices in the open market, Punjab government under Flour Milling Act 2011-12 issued a notification regarding sale of wheat for year 2010-11 stored in the open at the rate of Rs 960 per 40 kg. He said the policy would remain effective for 30 days. Secretary Food further informed that the sale of the wheat would also result in availability of more space for the storage of wheat.
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