LAHORE: Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (Punjab Zone) has categorically denied a news report carried Business Recorder that figures of surplus stocks of sugar are fudged by PSMA.
In a statement, a PSMA spokesman said the figures are repeatedly reconciled through different sources and duly verified by the FBR in a number of meetings held with the government at the highest level.
Allegations of not honouring commitments with the government against the industry, which generates millions of jobs, contributes Rs.125 billion in taxes, pays Rs.800 billion to sugarcane growers every year are also incorrect. The sugar industry provides an import substitution of approximately US$4 billion besides yearly export of ethanol for approximately US$600 million.
MoC to resist PSMA’s ‘unsound’ export plan
Regarding payment, the sugar industry is facing a liquidity crunch due to carryover stocks of last year and this year’s surplus stocks. Sugar industry since start of the last crushing season repeatedly requested the government to take early decision on export of sugar to benefit from the higher international prices of the commodity but continuous delay not only increased the financial problems of the sugar mills but also affected the smooth payments to the sugarcane growers.
Moreover, 0.5 million tons of sugar can also be kept as strategic reserves by the Trading Corporation of Pakistan. At present, retail prices of sugar are the lowest in the world. Devaluation and constant surplus has created big opportunity and made sugar an export-oriented industry.
BR staff reporter adds: Commerce minister Jam Kamal has told a private television that prime minister Shehbaz Sharif will never acquiesce to any increase in the price of sugar. He also said that allowing export of sugar leads to increase in its price in the country, adding that now the sugar millers will be required to give an undertaking that there will be no hike in the price of sugar in the local market in the event of export of this commodity.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024