Ban on sugar export: PHC directs KP govt, sugarcane commissioner to submit replies

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Tuesday directed the provincial government and sugarcane commissioner to submit replies in a petition seeking the court directives to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to lift ban on the export of surplus sugar.

A division bench of the PHC comprising Justice Syed Arshad Ali and Justice Muhammad Ijaz Khan Sabi heard the petition filed by Al-Moiz Sugar Mills (Pvt) Limited, Dera Ismail Khan.Counsel for the petitioner Ishaq Ali Qazi informed the bench that Al-Moiz Sugar Mills was located in Dera Ismail Khan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and produced sugar and had provided jobs to thousands of people.

He said that the petitioner’s mill had exported 9,000 metric tonnes of sugar and had earned a huge amount of foreign exchange.He said that the federal government had allowed the millers to export surplus sugar of about 2,50,000 metric tonnes as per set procedures but the KP government was reluctant to give permission to the millers for export of the commodity.

He pleaded that KP had surplus sugar but the millers cannot export it due to ban by the provincial government while other provinces had already started export of surplus sugar following the federal government permission.

The lawyer said millers had long been appealing to the government to consider export of surplus sugar as it was facing huge losses due to increased costs of production.“The total available sugar in the current year is 7.5 million metric tonnes, while the country’s annual consumption is 6.00 million metric tonnes, which shows that Pakistan has surplus sugar of 1.5 million metric tonnes, which can earn 1.2 billion US dollars in foreign exchange,” he added.

He argued that if the surplus sugar was exported, the greatest benefit will be transferred to the farmers, valuable foreign exchange will flow into the country and the government will have to depend less on foreign aid.

He said that continuous production of surplus sugar every year without its appropriate exports and domestic sale of sugar below its costs of production has increasingly become unsustainable and unviable for the sugar industry in the province.

He maintained that if the KP government allowed the millers to export surplus sugar it could fetch $90 million foreign exchange, which will also be distributed among the farmers.However, the provincial government did not allow the millers to export the surplus sugar.The lawyer prayed the court to direct the provincial government to allow millers to export the surplus sugar.