The second flour milling conference organised by the Indo-Pak Flour Mills Confederation ended here on Saturday with a call on the government to set up a wheat board with flour millers' representatives on board dealing with all policy issues concerning wheat and products.
The Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry Zonal Chairman (FPCCI), Azhar Saeed Butt, chaired the concluding session. Agriculture Development Commissioner Dr Qadir Bukhsh Baloch, Dr Bilal Sufi, Mujahid Khurshid and Mian Riaz representing the millers also addressed the session.
Presenting the recommendations, Dr Sufi asked for setting up a wheat board and welcomed banning the wheat export. He demanded that the support price of wheat be frozen for five years and subsidy be given to farmers to encourage them to produce more wheat and help consumers.
He said that since food items were exempt from GST, electricity bills of flour millers should be exempted from GST too. He said banks should be asked to give loan to mills on a reduced mark-up rate to buy wheat, government stocks of wheat should be released to only flour mills, proper support should be extended to flour mills to start producing fortified flour and help to set up the latest laboratory facilities to ensure hygiene in the flour production.