ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has constituted a committee headed by Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb to prepare wheat procurement plan for Food Year 2024-25 in the light of IMF’s viewpoint, well-informed sources told Business Recorder.
Other members of the committee are Minister for National Food Security and Research, Minister for Commerce and Rana Sana Ullah Khan, Advisor to Prime Minister on Political Affairs and Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC) tasked to review the current regulatory framework of the wheat market in view of availability and pricing in the country and recommend/finalise wheat policy for Rabi 2024-25, in consultation with stakeholders/provinces considering all related matters (including support price, recommendations on procurement of wheat by the federal government as well as provinces, ensuring availability of wheat with price stability).
The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet, in its recent meeting had directed the Ministry of National Food Security and Research to formulate a strategy for the Government to withdraw from the procurement and disbursement business of wheat by deregulating the whole process and leaving it to the market.
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These directions were issued during discussion on a summary of Ministry of National Food Security and Research regarding allocation of domestic and imported wheat stocks of Passco among agencies for food year 2024-25.
MNFS&R further briefed the forum that at the start of the food year 2024-25, i.e., April 1 2024, Passco’s carry forward wheat stock was 7.266 MMT including imported wheat stock of 0.678 MMT procured in 2021 and2022 and domestic wheat stock of 0.588 MMT procured in 2022 and 2023.In 2024, new stock of domestic wheat of 1.785 MMT was procured.
In order to dispose of the old imported wheat stock of 0.678 MT in food year 2024-25 (reduced to 0.555 MMT on October 1, 2024), Passco proposed that the release ratio for agencies/regions should be 50% domestic and 50% imported in order to reduce higher risk of deterioration of quality of imported wheat due to pest infestation and other issues.
On July 24, 2023, the ECC approved supply ratio of domestic and imported wheat at 50:50 for all agencies except GB where it was fixed at 75: 25.
On February 1, 2024, ECC approved 100% domestic wheat allocation for GB for the remaining financial year against its approved quota of 150,000 MT.
GB argued that this decision was valid until a permanent solution was agreed upon and not restricted to the financial year. Passco disputed this interpretation because it has created a situation where GB was lifting domestic 75% of their allocated wheat quota and not the imported 25%.
GB had raised concerns about potential shortage of wheat in the winter months. Both GB and Army requested 100% domestic wheat claiming quality, taste, and texture issues. Similar concerns had been raised by AJ&K.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024