The Monopoly Control Authority (MCA) has directed 28 sugar mills to bring their remaining stock of 500,000 tons in the market in a month and warned them to refrain from hoarding and restrictive trade practices, MCA chairman Syed Bilal Ahmed told Business Recorder here on Saturday.
The chairman said the MCA had completed hearing in sugar cartel case and found that charges levelled in the show-cause notices against 70 sugar mills were correct. Warning letters have been issued to 47 sugar mills till today, while letters for others were in the process," he added.
The MCA had issued show-cause notices to sugar mills in April to explain why action should not be taken against them under the law for formulating a cartel to unilaterally fix sugar prices detrimental to consumers' interests, and asked for details of their production, sales and remaining stocks, so that it could determine economic or other causes of sharp and constant rise of sugar prices.
Syed Bilal told that after scrutiny of records of all sugar mills, the MCA found that national average of sugar lifting till December 31 was 22.8 percent, and till January, 35 percent, but lifting by most of the sugar mills was much below the target and they were involved in hoarding and price hike.
MCA sources told Business Recorder the authority was making recommendations to the government to solve this problem on permanent and sound footings.