Govt benchmark helps arrest sugar price hike: PSMA Punjab

LAHORE: Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (Punjab Zone) has claimed that artificial price hike of sugar, sponsored by Satta Mafia, profiteers and hoarders, has successfully been reversed after fixing of a benchmark of ex-mill and retail sugar prices by the government.

In a statement, a PSMA spokesman said that a General Body meeting of PSMA was held here on Tuesday which categorically ruled out any shortage of sugar in the country, saying stocks are ample to satiate consumers’ needs. He said that Kiryana Merchants, Satta Mafia and hoarders are spreading baseless rumours of sugar price hike, causing hike in sugar rates.

The spokesman added that sugar prices have come down to the benchmark set by the government. These prices were agreed with the government by the sugar industry in the best interest of consumers for a month till April 19 while at the same time, the sugar industry has made available discounted sugar at Rs130 per kg for poor masses at 274 established stalls during the holy month of Ramazan.

Reports of price hike due to exports of the commodity are completely fabricated and baseless. The sugar industry has urged the government to adopt two-tier mechanism for determining separate sugar prices as 80 percent sugar is consumed by the industrial/commercial sector and 20 percent is consumed by the domestic consumers. The government should devise a policy mechanism to provide subsidized sugar from this 20 percent to the deserving people as are registered in the Benazir Income Support Program or through some other policy intervention.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2025