LAHORE:The price of sugar increased by Rs31 per kilogram since the government has allowed its export on the pretext of surplus stocks availability. The new price reached Rs152 per kilogram at wholesale level from Rs121 per kilogram.
The leadership of the Central Karyana Merchant Association of Punjab addressing a press conference here at Lahore Press Club on Friday said that the government was unable to control the sugar prices despite that it bound the millers not to increase the sugar rates to allow its export. Patron in Chief of the Association Salim Pervaiz Butt, Chairman Punjab Sheikh Waqas, and General Secretary Rizwan Shaukat argued why the government allowed the sugar exports when the surplus stocks were not sufficient to maintain the sugar price in the local market.
Furthermore, they claimed the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) was raiding their businesses for not keeping the sugar sales record. However, they questioned how can they keep the record of retail purchase of sugar while the law of keeping the sugar sales record was made for the sugar wholesale dealers.
The Association claimed that the government forced the retailers to keep the rates unchanged for three months while in wholesale markets it allowed daily changes in the prices. ‘Majority of pulses imported and the prices are fluctuated according to the international prices and exchange rates’. So the wholesalers charged the rates from retailers accordingly. But the government didn’t allow the retailers to change the rates accordingly.
The retailers claimed that the whole price fixation mechanism is flawed and collapsed while the deputy commissioners and assistant commissioners are least interested to ensure the availability of the perishables. Rather, they are focused towards imposition of the fines to the retailers on the pretext of the overcharging as their performance is gauged with the number of the challans, fine imposed and recovered from it, the retailers said.