Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) on Wednesday invited applications for the sale of 50,000 metric tons of white refined sugar in the country.
TCP chairman Masood Aslam Rizvi said that this decision has been taken on the instructions of the government to avoid shortage of sugar in the country, especially during the forthcoming holy month of Ramazan.
"The government has asked us to offload 200,000 MT from our stock of 475,000 MT stored at 26 mills of which 14 are located in Punjab, 11 in Sindh and one in NWFP", he noted.
Rizvi pointed out that this sugar would be sold at a fixed price of Rs 19,000 per metric tons ex-mill, and each applicant has to lift a minimum quantity of 500 MT.
TCP chief said that the applicant has to submit a security deposit at a rate of Rs 1000 per metric ton and an advance payment of Rs 15500 per metric ton of the price of quantity applied for.
The applications will be opened on October 5, 2004 at TCP head office at FTC Building in the presence of applicants.
The successful applicants will be required to make a balance payment by October 11, 2004 and lift sugar by October 15, 2004 so that the TCP sugar is available in the market by October 16, 2004, a day that will most probably be the first of Ramazan, Rizvi said.
He was of the opinion that the Corporation might not be able to dispose off the entire offered quantity as the prices of sugar had already fallen on the news of TCP's entry in the market.
He said that ex-mill prices of sugar have fallen from Rs 19,500 per metric ton to Rs 19,000 and Rs 16,500 per metric ton in the last few days. Rizvi said that the purpose of the government has already been served and TCP will be more than happy if its offered sugar was not sold on October 5, 2004.
"We can store the procured sugar for at least three to four years. Besides, we had agreed with the selling sugar mills at a time of procurement that they will replace the stored sugar with new stock every year if TCP did not dispose off sugar," he added.
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