In view of the deteriorating law and order situation in the country, Pakistan Sugar Mills Association has decided to make payment against "Cane Payment Receipts" (CPR) through banks scroll, PSMA chairman Javed Kayani told Business Recorder here on Tuesday.
He said PSMA held a meeting to review procedure of payment to the growers amid frequent incidents of robberies, cash snatching on gun point and other crimes in the vicinity of sugar mills and sugarcane growing areas.
He said PSMA has advised its members to make payment to sugarcane producers/sellers through bank scroll so that growers were not put to undue risk at the hands of criminals, miscreants and anti-social elements. It may be added that under provisions of section 21 (1) of the Income Tax Ordinance Sugar Mills are required to make payment to the growers/producers through banking channel for the purpose of documentation of their transactions.
Kayani said that the sugarcane crop is very good this year and the growers are getting good price of their produce, almost double of the government's fixed support price of Rs 125 per 40kg. He said PMSA's conservative estimate about sugar production of 2010-2011 crushing season is 3.7 to 3.8 million ton and with 0.4 million tons sugar in the stock of Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) there would be enough sugar available in the country to meet domestic needs of 4.3 million tons of sugar till November 2011. Meanwhile sugar industry sources told this scribe that despite last year's floods in the country, sugar crop and its recovery, sucrose content is good.
It has risen from 8.5 to 10 percent owing to timely rains and the flood-water that fertilized and enriched the soil of fields. A general manager of a sugar mill in South Punjab said that due to bumper crop, sugarcane prices have fallen from maximum of Rs 260 per 40kg in December to Rs 190 in later half of January 2011.
The ex-mill price of sugar has also decreased from maximum of Rs 75 per kg to Rs 66 per kg. He said till 18th January only 40 to 45 percent crop had been harvested whereas 55 to 60 percent crop was yet to be harvested, therefore, the crushing season might be extended till middle of April. Chairman Agri-Forum Pakistan, Ibrahim Moghal said the year long sugarcane crop, sown over 2 million acres in Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa, Punjab and Sindh provinces with production 55 million tons sugarcane injects about Rs 220 billion in the rural economy.
He said after value addition, 80 plus sugar mills of the country produce sugar and other by-products worth Rs 360 billion annually and provide directly and indirectly jobs to millions of households. He said Pakistan's sugar industry produces more than half a million tons of ethanol per annum from cane molasses, over 50 percent of which is exported to Europe, Far East and Middle East countries.
Sources said Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MINFA) in consultation with the Provincial governments of KP, Punjab and Sindh and the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA) has undertaken measures to support increased sugarcane productivity and production. It is striving to achieve self-sufficiency and sustainability in sugar production by ensuring the availability of inputs. However, it has miserably failed to establish a fair price mechanism to foil market manipulation, hoarding, profiteering and black marketing in the country.
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