Govt to review sugar policy in next ECC meeting

ISLAMABAD: At a time when sugar mill owners flatly refused to provide Rs182 per 40 kg price to sugarcane growers, the Ministry of Commerce will take up the issue for reviewing subsidy of Rs6.5 billion on export of sugar from the taxpayers’ money in the next ECC meeting.
“We only look after exports side but overall sugar policy will be reviewed in the next ECC meeting,” Federal Minister for Commerce Khurram Dastgir Khan and Secretary Commerce Shehzad Arbab said during the press conference here on Tuesday. Irrespective of political divide, the sugar industry was largely owned by the political elites of the country so the industry got subsidy when the prices in international market are depressed.
The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet approved a subsidy of Rs10 per kilogram on export of 650,000 tons of sugar on account of rebate subsidy of Rs8 and Rs2 freight subsidy from the national exchequer. While the cane crushing season is going to end soon, farmers in Sindh were left at the mercy of sugar mill owners who flatly refused to buy sugarcane on the government notified rate of Rs182 per 40 kilograms.
Out of 37 sugar mills in Sindh, 29 have started cane crushing after delaying commencement of the crushing for around two months on the pretext of a high court order issued on the plea of the Sindh Zone of the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA).
In the ECC, it was initially proposed to provide Rs18 per kg subsidy to mill owners on exporting sugar. After stiff resistance from certain ministries, the ECC decided to provide Rs10 per kg subsidy on exports that had largely benefited political elites of the country. It was argued that the sugar mills were facing losses so there was need to issue balance sheet of these mills in order to ensure transparency in this whole deal where taxpayers’ money was utilised to rescue business tycoons from losses.