The federal government is planning to sell the imported refined sugar in the open market to overcome the current sugar crisis, sources told Business Recorder on Wednesday. Presently, market is facing massive shortage of sugar as millers have stopped delivery of sugar after the Supreme Court verdict to release commodity stocks at Rs 36 per kilogram.
At present, sugar is a valuable commodity in the local market and is being sold at Rs 80 per kilogram. Sources said that federal government has received a proposal from TCP, in which it has requested the government to sell a small quantity of imported sugar in the open market to arrest the rising prices of the commodity.
"Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) has suggested to the federal government that stocks of imported white crystalline sugar should be offloaded in the open market through open auction," they said, and added that the proposal has already been sent to the ministry of commerce for approval.
Sources said that the government is seriously considering the proposal and is likely to discuss it in the next meeting of the Economic Co-ordination Committee (ECC). "TCP has asked government to sell some 25,000 tons to 30,000 tons of imported sugar in the open market through a transparent auction," they added.
The aim behind this suggestion is to bring down the rise in prices of sugar and fulfil the demand of open market, where sugar is available in short quantity at a high price of Rs 70-80 per kilogram. Sources said that federal government has already made this practice before Ramazan to avoid shortage in the open market and once again is considering to sell its stocks in free market.
TCP has enough stocks of refined imported sugar in its godowns, as on the directives of ECC, the corporation has already imported about 0.225 million tons of white crystal sugar from Brazil and other countries for domestic consumption. Some 180,000 tons of imported sugar has reached the TCP godowns, while a ship carrying 22,300 tons of imported sugar has arrived at Port Qasim during last week.
At present, 203,000 tons of imported and 35,159 tons of local procured sugar is in TCP custody, from which TCP is providing 25,000-30,000 tons sugar on monthly basis to the Utility Corporation of Pakistan (USC) where sugar is being sold at Rs 38 per kilogram.
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