'SOS' call to Finance Ministry: PSMA seeks cancellation of remaining export quota

Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (Punjab) has written to the Federal Finance Ministry to have the remaining quota of sugar export, which is to be set aside by the State Bank of Pakistan, cancelled to arrest the rising trend in commodity prices in the domestic market. Association Chairman Javaid Kayani told the Business Recorder on Thursday that he had sent an SOS call to Federal Minister for Finance Ishaq Dar for the cancellation. He said it was "a manipulation by sugar dealers' nexus".
The prices of the commodity in wholesale market of the provincial metropolis reached Rs 6,400 to Rs 6,450 per 100 kilogrammes on Thursday, with dealers in Akbari Mandi, the largest wholesale market, claiming that the ex-mill price had reached Rs 6,300 to Rs 6,350 per 100 kilogrammes and that transportation and loading and unloading charges had cost them up to Rs 6,400 per 100 kilogrammes.
Lahore Sugar Dealers Association's President Asghar Butt and wholesaler Hamid Akmal said they had stopped lifting the commodity from mills because of its mounting prices and pressure from the city administration to sell them at Rs 60 per kilogrammes. President Butt blames the rulers, claiming that they were playing the role of "silent spectator" to the situation.
Wholesaler Akmal told the Business Recorder that the whole market had stopped lifting sugar from the mills and warned that if the situation remained like this for another one or two days, there would be a shortage in the retail market. Dealers have accused the millers of raising the prices without any justification.
Association Punjab Zone Chairman Javaid Kayani, when contacted, claimed that the dealers were manipulating the situation. "We have asked the government to cancel the remaining export quota to maintain the market prices ... The industry has procured sugarcane during the crushing season at Rs 180 per maund and per kilogramme sugar has cost them Rs 62 to Rs 63. Now when we have achieved our production cost, it will be inappropriate that consumer interest is ignored. So, we have written to the government to stop the export."
The sugar men's demand comes as the sugar prices in the domestic market has stayed low in the current crushing season 2014-15 for quite some time. However, after the closure of season in late April when the ex-mill prices were raging around Rs 50 per kilogramme, these have started going up and then they reached on Thursday to the highest of this season.