Pakistan Flour Mills Association (PFMA) Central Chairman Badar Uddin Kakkar has alleged that numerous flour mills from Balochistan, KPK and Punjab were facing liquidity crunch while many others had stopped working as they could not receive payment of refund claims against export of wheat and wheat flour to Afghanistan.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, the flour millers' central leadership alleged that the Punjab government was treating the flour mills of all three provinces with discrimination. They said that flour mills followed all the criteria prescribed by the government for wheat and flour export but they could not get the rebate amount despite passage of many months after completion of export process.
They alleged that non-payment had closed down half of the flour mills and those which were operational at present may also stop working because of non-availability of funds in case of refunds are not paid at the earliest. They appealed the federal and provincial governments to take stern action against those bureaucrats who were exploiting the local industrialists.