ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Industries, Hammad Azhar on Monday, while blaming the Sindh government for low releases of wheat to the flour millers, claimed that the people of Sindh were buying expensive wheat flour compared to the people of the other provinces.

Taking on Twitter, Azhar said that the Sindh government was releasing around 6,000 tons of wheat per day, falling short of its promise to release 10,000 tons per day.

"It also started its releases late in the season compared to other provinces," said Azhar.

He added that due to these two reasons, the people of Sindh were purchasing "expensive flour" compared to the other parts of the country because of the "lower releases" by the Sindh Government.

He further claimed that wheat flour prices have witnessed six percent reduction from October 22 to November 26 from Rs1,036 per 20kg bag on 22 October to Rs979 on 26 November.

This drop would have been much more, if the Sindh prices had reduced to the level of Punjab, where average price is around Rs860. Against national average price of Rs979, prices in Sindh averaged Rs1,061 per 20-kg bag.

But contrary to the federal minister's claim, wheat flour nowhere is now available on the aforementioned prices as the government-sponsored wheat flour is not available on most of the shops and is even short at the Utility Stores Corporation (USC) outlets, since months. While the flour millers, after massive increase in commodity prices have reduced size of the packing from 20kg bag to 15kg bag.

In retail, wheat flour is being sold at Rs960 per 15-kg bag, however, within past 10 days, sugar price has declined to Rs4,200 per 50-kg bag from Rs5,300 per 50kg bag.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020