Flour millers say State Bank must pay rebate money

The Pakistan Flour Mills Association (PFMA-Punjab) alleged here on Wednesday that the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has not paid the amount to the exporters under rebate on export of wheat and wheat products.
PFMA Punjab Chapter Chairman Riaz Ullah Khan, Group Leader Asim Raza Ahmad, Liaquat Ali Khan and former chairman Iftikhar Ahmad Mattoo said this while talking to a group of journalists that the exporters were yet to receive the rebate money from June 2016 to date on export of wheat and wheat products from the country. They claimed that the government had released the funds in this regard two and half months back. They said the exporters had made an export of one million tons of wheat in this period but now they were facing liquidity crunch because of non-payment of rebate money.
The flour millers said the country at present had around six million tons of wheat in stocks including 2.5 million tons surplus grain. "The new crop would also be due shortly but some bureaucrats in the central bank were bent upon sabotaging the wheat export programme of the government. They were making the wheat exporters to run from pillar to post to submit one clarification and then another. This attitude of the State Bank officers would severely hamper the efforts of disposal of surplus wheat and the government would be facing hardships in procurement of the coming crop as it would not have place to store the grains. This would also result in exploitation of the growers and wheat might be sown on lesser area during the next season." The PFMA leaders urged the Prime Minister to take an immediate notice of the situation and order resolution of the problems being faced by the exporters.