National Assembly body meeting: government resists move to increase wheat support price

Criticising anti-farmer policies of the government, Pakistan Muslim League (PLM-N) MNA Muhammad Raza Hayat Hiraj said on Friday that the lack of the government interest to protect their interests was paving way for civil disobedience.
He said that if this indifferent attitude towards farmers who were contributing 70 percent to the national economy persisted, no farmer will be inclined to grow cash crops like sugarcane, wheat and rice hence the government will be forced to import them and the situation will go out of control leading to civil disobedience.
Speaking at the National Assembly Standing Committee on National Food Security and Research, he urged the authorities to increase the support price of wheat or ensure minimum wheat price not less than Rs 1,300 per 40 kg to Rs 1,500 per 40 kg, as higher input cost and lower support price will further ruin farmers, working day and night to boost the national economy. However, some of the members and the secretary of Ministry of National Food Security and Research (MNFS&R) are not in favour of increase in wheat support price and asked the government to eradicate general sales tax (GST) on agriculture machinery and inputs.
Hiraj said that power bills have already increased two-fold for farmers; DAP and other fertilisers along with pesticides and machinery have also registered maximum price increase. In such a situation, the poor farmers are unable to fetch fair price for their labour-intensive produce, he said.
Rao Muhammad Ajmal Khan said the government fixed wheat support price or minimum guaranteed wheat price without the consultation of farmers. "Farmers will not grow main cash crops if the authorities fail in providing adequate price to them", he said. He was of the view that the government needed to increase support price of wheat up to Rs 1,500 per 40 kg from Rs 1,200 per 40 kg or eradicate GST over agriculture input and machinery. He warned that farmers may come out on roads to protest for their genuine demands.
The committee meeting held under the chairmanship of Malik Shakir Bashir Awan did approve increase in minimum guaranteed wheat price from Rs 1,300 per 40 kg to Rs 1,500 per 40 kg. However, the committee decided to summon Ministry of Finance, FBR and other related officials in next meeting to find out way to eradicate GST on agriculture input and machinery to provide some relief to wheat growers.
MQM MNA Muhammad Salman Khan Baloch opposed increase in the wheat support price. Seerat Asghar, secretary of MNFS&R, said that further increase in the wheat support price will have negative impact over the country economy and would create confusion in the market. The government has fixed Rs 1,300 wheat support price following the consultation with all provinces.
He said that his ministry after receiving the relevant analysis of wheat crop price (2014-15) by the Agriculture Policy Institute (API), considering the cost of production, import/export parity price, international wheat price and domestic wheat prices. The issue of wheat support price also came under discussion during the Federal Committee on Agriculture (FCA) meeting, he said.
The MNFS&R secretary said that provincial governments after due deliberation with their respective authorities agreed on support price of wheat as Rs 1,300 per 40 kg from Rs 1,200 per 40 kg. "The MNFS&R will take up the matter with the Finance Minister and the Economic Co-ordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet decided to increase the price from Rs 1,200 to Rs 1,300 per 40 kg for 2014-15, he said.
MNA Muhammad Safdar raised the issue of the export of Indian wheat through Pakistani territory which incurred billion of rupees loss to the national economy. Four influential people have made a deal in this regard with India, he said. The MNFS&R Secretary assured the committee that Indian wheat would not be allowed to enter Pakistani territory for its export to Afghanistan. He said wheat was not included in trading items, which India can pass on to Afghanistan through Pakistan. He said Pakistan export 1.5 million tons of wheat to Afghanistan every year. The secretary said he already ordered an inquiry to check passing of wheat to Afghanistan from India through Pakistan. He said the government was taking serious steps on Afghan transit trade.
The committee also expressed concern over the recent import of substandard wheat from Ukraine by a private party. The selling of substandard quality of wheat imported form Ukraine continued in Karachi's local market, an official of the Sindh Agriculture Department informed the committee. The committee directed the concerned department to stop the issuance of substandard wheat to flour mills. Seerat Asghar said the issue was already in his notice and his ministry rejected 70 containers of wheat imported from Ukraine by a private party but officials of FBR have allowed it. He said that according to WHO manifesto no country could stop import of any commodity but it should meet certain standards, claiming that Ukraine wheat could not meet the laid down criteria. About 600 more containers of Ukraine wheat were stopped for clearance on the port. Though the secretary could not mentioned the name of party that imported Ukrainian wheat but said it can be verified from the State Bank where its LC (Letter of Credit) was opened. The committee decided that a sub-committee will be formed to check quality of the imported wheat and then final decision would be taken in this regard.