Federal Cabinet rejects summary of sugar & cotton import from India

The Federal Cabinet on Thursday has rejected the summary of import of sugar and cotton from India.

As per media reports, a meeting of the Federal Cabinet was held under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Imran Khan in which the PM participated through video link.

The meeting of the Federal Cabinet considered the recommendation of the Economic Co-ordination Committee (ECC) to import sugar and cotton from India in which the ECC had recommended importing sugar from India at cheaper rates. The federal cabinet in the meeting rejected the ECC summary.

The cabinet decision comes a day after the ECC chaired by the newly appointed Finance Minister Hammad Azhar decided to open import of sugar and cotton from India for the benefit of the public and small and medium enterprises (SMEs), Azhar said that “sugar is 15 to 20 percent cheaper in India compared to Pakistan.”

It was learned that the cabinet has expressed reservations over the decision of the ECC and the members said that it would not be a positive development to import these items from India in the context of problems with India.

After the rejection of the summary by the cabinet, the Prime Minister directed the concerned authorities to intensify efforts to import sugar and cotton from other countries at reasonable prices.

Talking to media persons on Wednesday, Finance Minister Hammad Azhar said that as the price of sugar has been considerably less in neighboring India compared to Pakistan, the ECC had decided to open trade of sugar and allowed the private sector to import 0.5 million tons of this essential commodity from India.

The minister further stated that as there existed a huge demand for cotton subsequent to increase in exports and cotton produced by the country was not sufficient to cater to the demand, the ECC decided on a proposal moved by the Ministry of Commerce that import of cotton would also be opened from India till end June 2021.

Azhar said the decision was taken to facilitate Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) as big industries can afford to import from any country but the shortage was affecting the small and medium enterprises.