The national exchequer has to bear around one billion dollar burden following the federal government''s decision to import 1.5 million tons of wheat to arrest the swelling wheat flour crisis in the country.
Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani has instructed the concerned ministry to import 1.5 million tons of wheat to fulfil the local demand besides arresting the swelling flour crisis.
Whereas, traders and economists firmly believe that the government''s move will put further burden on the national exchequer as prices of the commodity in world markets are on the rise due to global food crisis. Wheat in the world''s many countries is short of demand, they said.
"If now Pakistan imports wheat from world markets, the commodity will be costlier and its prices will be ranging approximately 640-660 dollar per ton," said a leading wheat trader.
Analysts estimate that the government will spend one billion dollar to import wheat. They held the previous government responsible for the rising wheat crisis in the country. They linked the commodity shortage with its unabated smuggling to Afghanistan and huge hoarding mainly by exporters.
Pakistan being an agricultural state, mainly depends on its agri products, which not only fulfil local demand but also earn huge national exchequer through exports, they observed. However, smuggling and illegally hoarding of commodities besides unabated exports are the major reasons behind price hike of commodities and their shortage in the local markets, they said.
Apart from one billion dollar, the government will also have to pay billions of rupees on account of taxes and duties, which have been so far imposed on the import of wheat.
The federal government has already spent some $900 million on import of 1.7 million tons of wheat, while some $600 million have been paid as subsidy to maintain prices of wheat at Rs 1,225 per 100-kg bag.
Earlier, last September, the federal government had taken a decision for import of one million tonnes of wheat after two years gap following the soaring prices of wheat and flour in the domestic markets. Later, Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) was given a task to import wheat from Australia, USA, Canada, Russia and Ukraine on emergency basis to fulfil the local demand.
Following the federal government instruction, TCP so far has imported around 1.7 million tons of wheat from USA, Ukraine, Russia and Australia. However, the commodity''s import made from Russia arrived in Karachi port on December 2007 failed to rein in the flour prices in the local market, which persistently continued to rise.
Wheat crisis is still looming large on the local markets of the country. Commodity crisis has largely been linked by the sources in Minfal to some internal elements. They said that presently wheat in the world markets is not available due to its insufficiency, while prices of the available stocks are higher than the previously imported wheat.
"The white wheat is also not available in the international markets, making the country import only red variety of wheat for local consumption on higher rates," they added. They said that the task for the import of 1.5 million tons will also be assigned to TCP, which is already monitoring the international market closely.