The government on Saturday fixed Rs 45 per kilogram ex-mill price of sugar inclusive of all taxes for a period of three months from the first of Ramazan, and slashed general sales tax (GST) by 50 percent during this period. This was decided by Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani while chairing a high-level meeting held to discuss the sugar crisis and escalated price of the commodity to over Rs 60 per kilogram in many parts of the country.
The Prime Minister directed the Minister for Industries to ensure the availability of subsidised sugar at Rs 38 per kilogram at all utility stores in the country. He also directed the ministry that the support of provincial governments be sought for devising an effective monitoring mechanism to tackle the crisis.
The meeting decided that there would be no restriction on the inter-provincial movement of sugar and wheat. It was also decided that a meeting of the four chief ministers would be held within the next fortnight to chalk out a long-term strategy for determining the sugar prices.
Minister for Industries Manzoor Wattoo apprised the meeting about his negotiations with the representatives of Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA) on August 18 and the subsequent decision, saying that the sugar prices announced following the meeting with the millers, was subject to the approval of Economic Co-ordination Committee (ECC).
The meeting was attended by Federal Minister for Commerce Makhdoom Amin Fahim, Industries Minister Mian Manzoor Wattoo; Food and Agriculture Minister Nazar Mohammad Gondal, Interior Minister Rahman Malik, Minister of State for Industries Dr Ayatullah Durrani, Punjab Minister for Food Malik Nadeem Kamran and Senator Ishaq Dar. The Secretaries of Finance, Commerce, Industries and Food & Agriculture, Chief Secretaries of Punjab, NWFP and Balochistan; Food Secretaries of Punjab, NWFP and Sindh, Chairman of TCP and Sugarcane Commissioner also attended the meeting.