It is, indeed, heartening to learn that at long last the government and the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA) have reached an agreement which is likely to bring an end to the mounting bitterness bedevilling the country's sugar economy to the increasing disillusionment of all its stakeholders.
It will be recalled that earlier, on March 5, at the conclusion of an officially convened meeting of all the stakeholders, held under the chairmanship of Industries and Production Minister Liaquat Ali Khan Jatoi, a 12-member committee was formed with a view to finding a lasting solution to the woes of various segments of the industry.
On that occasion, the minister had emphasised the task of the committee to come up with recommendations aimed at resolving the problems of the entire sugar economy as a whole, instead of ad hoc measures focusing topical issues from time to time as adopted in the past.
The agreement now reached at a meeting of all the stakeholders will certainly appear to be the result of the efforts made by this committee in the desired direction.
Needless to point out, it was a challenging task in view of clash of interest among the various stakeholders, requiring quite a great deal of time for creation of an atmosphere of confidence on which the success of the exercise understandably depended.
This should explain the delay in the finalisation of the committee's recommendations.
Under the initial scheme of things, the committee was asked to submit its report by 31st March, on the basis of which the Economic Co-ordination Committee was to approve necessary steps to deal effectively with all the problems of the sugar sector.
However, it will now appear that the time it has taken has been well spent and to the satisfaction of all the contenders. And this can, of course, be attributed to the representative character of the committee. Had it not been for the broad-based nature of its composition, representing all the stakeholders, consensus would have been impossible to develop.
It will thus be noted that understanding was reached among the clashing interests and that a scheme of mutual accommodation was worked out too. A fair idea of this welcome change may be had from a glance at the major provisions of the accord.
First and foremost, the agreement provides that the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) shall buy 0.3 million tons sugar from the PSMA members through open tender by May 31, in two instalments to reduce their surplus stocks. As against this, the mill owners, on their part, would ensure 100 percent payment to the growers by June 15.
Moreover, it has been made mandatory for the mill owners to start the next season's crushing from November 1, 2004. It will thus be seen that while taking care of the mill owners' predicament from huge stocks of sugar amid falling prices, it has provided for an end to the growers' problem from prolonged uncertainties regarding settlement of dues by the sugar mills.
Notable, in this regard, is the fact that both the government and PSMA have described the agreement as an encouraging development, expressing the hope that it would work to the expectations of all the concerned parties. Now that the outcome of the meeting would be referred to the Economic Co-ordination Committee (ECC) in its next meeting for consideration and approval, one hopes that it would be followed by the issuance of tender by the TCP to procure 0.2 million tons sugar.
As for the next instalment of 0.1 million, it has been marked for picking up at some later stage.
The agreement on controversial issues certainly augurs well for the otherwise depressed sugar sector and one would hope that things would keep moving in the right direction to the increasing satisfaction of all the stakeholders.
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