NA body expresses concern over sugar price hike

ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly (NA) Standing Committee on Commerce Thursday expressed concern over higher prices of sugar—despite the fact that Pakistan is an agriculture-based country producing sugarcane and having lots of sugar mills.
The Committee, which met under the chairmanship of MNA, Engineer Khurram Dastgir Khan, was of the view that current prices of sugar are too high—and are not uniform across the country.
The Committee told that TCP has said that there is no shortage of sugar “but the common man is complaining why sugar prices cannot be controlled. There is shortage of urea too and it is not being provided to farmers on subsidised rates.”
The Committee also criticised that the government is providing subsidy in commodities such as rice, urea and sugar and other—but no relief is given to the common man. The Committee said, like in 2009, the sugar crisis is again cropping up this year—therefore—it has been recommended to the Ministry of Commerce/ Chairman that TCP must act in an efficient way avoiding delay in codal formalities and must complete the work on time.
The Committee also discussed in detail the quality of sugar—which is coming the in the form of powder having no sweetness. Whereas imported sugar is, often, not made from sugarcane.
TCP Chairman Anjum Bashir told the Committee that imported sugar is of higher quality because it is completely refined. The polarization (sweetness of imported refined sugar) is 99.8% which is a degree higher compared to whole sugar of 99.7%. Similarly, granule size, ICU MSA of imported refined sugar is 45 compared to locally produced sugar of 80-100 ICUMSA. The Committee noted that cabinet decides about import—and mostly this decision comes when there is an acute shortage of commodity in the country leaving no time to complete the codal formalities like tenders, placement of orders, negotiations and shipment etc.
Therefore, an efficient mechanism should be established. As far as price was concerned the ministry of industries/NFML and Ministry of Food and Agriculture will be also called to clarify the position, the Committee said.
The Committee recommended Establishment Division to regularise the services of employees of Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) so that transparency and merit can be observed. Ministry of Commerce, Chairman TCP will send consolidated proposal to the Establishment Division.
The Committee criticised that many corruption charges were appeared in the media against some officials of the TCP and directed that a mechanism should be chalked out to eradicate malpractices within the TCP.
Earlier, TCP Chairman made a detailed presentation on the organisation’s structure and its function and import of different commodities like sugar, urea and others. He informed the Committee that through ECC decision, “the TCP would have no role in sugar import in future—and if the need arises, the private sector will be ready.”
He also claimed that the sugar imported by the TCP fully conforms to the standards set by PSQCA. “All the imported sugar is tested by the PSQCA and is delivered to Utility Stores Corporation of Pakistan, provinces and others only after it has been cleared by them.”
He also informed the Committee that the TCP cannot intervene in the market at its own discretion—“it only follows the ECC/Federal government directives.” Yasmeen Rehman, Ch Iftikhar Nazir, Noman Islam Sheikh, Liaqat Ali Khan, Tahira Aurangzeb, Haji Muhammad Akram Ansari, Shireen Arshad Khan, Iqbal Muhammad Ali Khan and Jamila Gilani attended the meeting.

(Source: http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2011%5C04%5C01%5Cstory_1-4-2011_pg5_5)