Punjab Chief Minister, Shahbaz Sharif has appealed to the federal government not to impose duty on the import of sugar. The chief minister demanded of the government that sugar import be exempted from duty as sugar was of every day use for a common man and it was the responsibility of the government to ensure provision of sugar to the people at reasonable prices.
He said that imposition of import duty would enhance the price of locally produced sugar and would be out of reach of the common man. He said that any further increase in the prices of sugar due to imposition of duty would be injustice to the masses whose lives have become miserable due to a number of issues like price hike. It is worth mentioning here that the Punjab government, at the end of last year asked the federal government to make arrangements for the import of sugar in order to cope with the possible shortage and price hike of sugar.
In this regard, the chief minister wrote letters to the prime minister saying that during 2009-10, the demand of sugar would surge to 4.4 million metric tons and the country would face a shortfall of 1.4 million metric tons of sugar due to delayed payments to cultivators, water shortage and other factors. Therefore, to meet this shortfall of sugar and its provision to the people on reasonable prices, the trading co-operation of Pakistan and private sector should import sugar without any delay.