Mills refuse to reduce atta prices

The flour millers have refused to reduce the prices of flour, saying that the government released much less wheat than was required for capacity utilisation of the mills, sources told Business Recorder.
Ansar Javed, Chairman of Pakistan Flour Mills Association (PFMA), Sindh Circle, said that the government had adjusted the monthly quota of release as 207 bags of 100 kg per day.
"It means that 0.106 million tons wheat will be released to flour mills of Karachi per month, but the overall requirement of the metropolis is 0.16 million tons, he said, and added, "The flour millers will have to purchase wheat from the open market to meet the requirement of flour in the metropolis. As the wheat price in the open market is much higher than the wheat released to the flour mills, the prices of flour will not be reduced at all."
Before the release of wheat stocks to the flour mills, it was in the air that prices of wheat as well as the flour would decrease. Even the flour millers had announced that they would reduce flour prices after the release of stocks. Wheat prices in the open market are Rs 1380 per 100 kg while the flour is being sold at Rs 1260 per 80 kg bag.
The government and the flour millers have frustrated the fond hopes of a common man who was expecting that before Ramazan the prices would go down. It clearly indicates that during Ramazan, a common man will have to spend Rs 4 for a ''rotti''.
Another flour miller told Business Recorder that less release of wheat stocks by the government to the flour millers could even make the prices higher than the existing prices as the flour millers will have to buy wheat from open market on high rates.
Sufi Bilal, a flour miller of Punjab, said that the Punjab government released 0.3 million tons wheat as monthly quota. "It means almost 11,000 tons wheat will be released to the flour millers per day. But our flour mills require 21,000 tons wheat per day", he said. He went on to say, "The capacity of our flour mills is eight hours per day while the wheat released by the government will utilise mills capacity for just 2-3 hours per day. So, the flour mills have to buy wheat from open markets".