GB people getting wheat at Rs 11/kg since 2002, parliamentary panel told

A parliamentary panel was informed on Monday that the government has been supplying wheat at Rs 11 per kg to the people of Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) since 2002 while in rest of the country it costs Rs 33-35 per kg.
In a written reply to a sub-committee of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), the officials of the Ministry of Kashmir Affairs & Gilgit-Baltistan said that since 2002 wheat has been supplied to end consumers in GB at aforementioned rates. The meeting was informed that as a result of low recovery price, the national kitty faced losses of Rs 437 million in 2006-07, Rs 654 million in 2007-08 and Rs 1.5 billion in 2008-09.
In violation of the above ECC decision, Directorate Civil Supplies & Transport (DCST), Gilgit, did not pass on the purchased cost fully to the purchaser which resulted in loss to the government.
The PAC sub-committee which met with Dr Arif Alvi in the chair directed the officials concerned to settle the issue in accordance with law.
Officials further stated that in accordance with the decision of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC), dated 17-04-2002, and subsequent clarification by Finance Division, the cost of transportation of wheat and handling charges were to be borne by the government which meant that purchased price was to be passed on to the consumers.
They further stated that ECC in 2000 decided to keep wheat price unchanged for the people of GB, while the federal government would bear the transportation cost in this regard.
The price of the sale proceeds were not revised in the light of the decision made by the ECC on 19th April 2002, which states that the cost of transportation of wheat and the over heads on handling of wheat charges to the GB would be borne by the federal government. This system would continue in future as well so that the sale price of wheat to consumers of then Northern Areas could be maintained.
The meeting was informed that in 2011, the federal government decided to gradually increase wheat prices up to 70%, the GB government subsequently started implementing the decisions and wheat rates were increased from Rs 8 to Rs 11 per kg, Rs 11 to Rs 12 per kg and Rs 14 to Rs 16.50 per kg from February 2012 to 2014 respectively. On increase in wheat prices, the people of GB started agitation. Following the protests, the chairman GB Council/Prime Minister of Pakistan approved a summary dated April 28, 2014 to withdraw wheat price increase for the GB people and since then wheat has been available at Rs 11 per kg in GB.
The meeting was informed that as a result of below the market wheat price for GB, in 2008-09 some officials started selling the product in Punjab and in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa which caused a loss of Rs 22.4 million to national kitty.
The Directorate of Civil Supply and Transport (DCST) Gilgit was procuring wheat from Punjab and supplying it to the residents of Northern Areas through civil supply depots. Audit observed that during the year 2008-09, 860,855-kg of wheat was found either stolen or short as per physical verification reports of five civil supply depots. The price of above wheat including transportation charges ie Rs 22,382,230 (860,855 kg x Rs 26/kg) was, thus, required to be recovered from the officers/officials held responsible.
The meeting was informed that the government arrested various officials on this account and so far has recovered Rs 7.9 million from them, while some cases are pending in courts and rest of the amount will soon be recovered. The committee expressed serious concerns over the use of rented non-customs paid (NCP) vehicles by law enforcement agencies from 2005-10 for internal security of GB. The committee was informed that on this account, 50 vehicles were rented by the Deputy Commissioner (DC) Gilgit office and 17 vehicles by DC Skardu. The meeting was informed that a total Rs 151.24 million rent was paid the owners of the vehicles. Auditor General of Pakistan held that the law-enforcement agencies (LEAs) hired them without any justification and plied non-customs paid vehicles on roads in violation of the law and incurred an expenditure of Rs 151.24 million.
The officials replied that the expenditure was incurred in view of law and order situation on deployment of LEAs. The budget for internal security duty claims was being provided by government of Pakistan (Finance Department) as a special case. This was not allocated as regular budget and consequently pending liabilities were shifted to next years.
The committee was surprised that since then the authorities have not approved the amount from relevant officials, ie secretary Ministry of GB and Kashmir Affairs. The chair directed the concerned officials to regularise the expenditure and avoid such violations of set rules and regulations in future.