Industries and Production Secretary Shahab Khawaja said on Friday that ex-factory price of sugar will not be fixed at Rs 29.50 per kg until it is confirmed that growers of the three provinces received officially notified price.
Talking to Business Recorder, Shahab said that Sugar Advisory Board was a recommendatory body and it would submit its agreed proposals to the secretaries committee headed by Finance Minister Dr Salman Shah. "SAB will recommend to the secretaries committee to consider fixation of sugar price at Rs 29.50 per kg, subject to the condition that the mill owners have paid the officially notified price of sugarcane to growers," Shahab added.
However, one of the participants told this scribe that none of the growers' representative from Punjab, Sindh and NWFP, present in SAB meeting, denied of having received officially notified price which was a pre-condition to fix sugar price at Rs 29.50 per kg.
Millers on the other hand were of the view that since the ex-factory price of sugar was Rs 18 per kg, then why should they pay them officially notified price? When contacted, an official privy to overall developments said that there was need for a long-term sugar policy so that millers, growers and farmers could be protected. Shahab further said that it was his endeavour to resolve this controversy once and for all.
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