ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Industries and Production has summoned the officials of the Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) and the representatives of the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA) to determine the factors involved in fixing the sugar price and brief the panel on the recent increase in sweetener prices.
The decision was taken here on Friday during the meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Industries and Production held under the chairmanship of Senator Aon Abbas to discuss and review the com position of the Sugar Advisory Board (SAB) and its role in defining the sugar price across the country.
The chairman committee expressed serious concerns over the absence of the secretary Ministry of Industries and Production for the third consecutive time. He directed the secretary to ensure his presence at the next meeting.
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Officials apprised that the SAB has a status of a recommendatory body and it reviews National Sugar Policy, sugar production and its export and imports. Chairman Committee Aon Abbas questioned as to whether the government cater to the sugar demand of the country while allowing export of 0.7 million tons last year. He further stated that sugar mills escalated the price of sugarcane by citing the reason of increased input cost and also inquired the role of SAB in determining the sweetener price. Additional secretary Ministry of Industries stated that the SAB ensure the reservation of strategic stock as per federal government’s mandate and has no role in fixing the sugar price.
Senator Aon Abbas also highlighted that 44 percent of sugar mills across the country are owned by political families as per data provided by the ministry. The committee, unanimously, decided to call up the officials of the CCP and the PSMA representatives to brief the members on the matter.
He alleged that sugar mill owners raise prices at the end of the crushing season. The committee has summoned the CCP and sugar mill owners to inquire about the price increase.
The committee was also briefed on the updated status of the Utility Stores Corporation (USC). The managing director (MD) of USC informed the committee that the corporation is on the government’s privatisation list. The privatisation process has been delayed due to the lack of a two-year audit, which is expected to be completed by August 2025. An initial assessment of the USC’s properties has already been conducted, and USC is on the second privatisation list of the government.
The MD USC said that estimated value of immovable assets of USC is around Rs8.3 billion as per 2020 and 2021 estimates. However, the USC has a liabilities of around Rs14 billion. As far as the USC employees are concerned, USC has total of 11,614 employees, of which, 5,000 are regular employees and 5,900 fall under the contract and daily wages category. However, regular employees have been placed on surplus pool and no decision has been taken regarding the contract and daily wages employees. The committee directed the ministry to keep the committee in the loop while taking decision for contractual and daily wages employees.
Contract employees will be terminated once the institution is privatised, and 1,700 loss-making USC stores will be closed. After privatisation, only 1,500 stores will require staff and the USC has approximately 1,000 franchises. The monthly expenses of the USC were Rs1.02 billion, which have now been reduced to Rs520 million after closing loss-making stores. This closure has decreased monthly losses by Rs220 million.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
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