Ministry not responsible for sugar crisis: Fahim

ISLAMABAD - Federal Minister for Commerce Makhdoom Amin Fahim here Tuesday said that his ministry was not responsible for the ongoing sugar crisis in the country.
He stated this while briefing National Assembly Standing Committee on Commerce, which met here under the chair of Engineer Khurram Dastgir Khan at Parliament House. Fahim said the people should use less sugar, as it was injurious to health.
Chairman Trade Corporation of Pakistan, Saeed Ahmad Khan, briefed the committee about sugar situation. He told that 83,283 metric tonnes of sugar had been received out of the 200,000 metric tonnes that the ECC had ordered in February 2009.
Saeed told the committee that government had not imported sugar from 2005 to 2009. He said TCP had purchased sugar at different rates i.e. Rs 21 to Rs 32 per kilogram from November 2007 to October 2008 while it sold the commodity up to Rs 37 in August this year.
“Average price of imported sugar from February to August this year remained at Rs 56 per kilogram whereas in August we imported the commodity at Rs 74 per kilogram,” he said, adding the TCP could purchase and buy sugar after the approval of government.
He said the TCP imported sugar timely under ECC directives but the stock remained lying in the mills due to administrative action by the government of Punjab against sugar mills. Police did not allow the Utility Stores Corporation to lift sugar, he added. Peshawar High Court also gave a verdict that TCP sugar stock could not be taken out of the district where it was lying, he added.