Proactive measures help stabilize sugar prices

ISLAMABAD: The measures taken by the government have resulted in stabilizing retail sugar price, which has decreased from Rs91 per kg in November 2010 to an average of Rs55 per kg in June this year.

Currently the retail price of sugar is all time low i.e. Rs 54.66 per kg while it was Rs63.35 in June 2010 and Rs69.61 in June-2011. There has been a bumper record sugar production of 4.61 million tons in the year 2011-12 which has pushed the sugar price down, an official source said here on Sunday.

About the steps taken to sustain the price of sugar, an official said that the commodity was available at discounted rate of Rs47 per kg at the Utility Store Corporation (USC) outlets for the low income groups while the government had built sugar stock equal to 375,435 tons through the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) as a buffer stock. Further 0.2 million tons sugar is under procurement, he added.

Moreover, sugar export of 0.3 million tons has also been allowed to encourage growers to go for sugarcane cultivation, he said.

The provincial governments control hoarding to check artificial shortage of sugar in the country while the ECC continuously monitors the stocks position and is briefed on sugar on fortnightly basis, he added.

In order to stabilize the price of sugar, the government allowed its import without any duty. Moreover, during the budget 2011-12 Federal Excise Duty @ 2.5pc has also been withdrawn, the official said.

SOURCE: brecorder