Punjab ‘delaying’ provision of sugar mills data to FIA

LAHORE: The Punjab government is using delaying tactics to provide the sugar crushing, stocks, ex-mill prices and other required data to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) inquiry committee, The News learnt on authority.

The committee, headed by Panama-JIT fame FIA Director General Wajid Zia, has been probing the increase in sugar prices on the instructions of Prime Minister Imran Khan to identify the mafia involved in the sugar crisis in the country last month.

The FIA DG had asked the provincial governments (cane commissioners) to provide the required data in a performa, provided by the investigation committee. However, the Punjab cane commissioner was using delaying tactics for provision of the data, according to the official documents available with The News.

The DG, on Feb 25, 2020, vide letter No PS/DG/FIA/2020/354, asked for providing the data to the FIA. In a letter, written to the Punjab chief secretary, the DG FIA asked for providing the data of daily sugarcane crushed and the stock positions of the sugar mills from Nov 30, 2019 to Feb 25, 2020 of all 40 sugar mills operating in Punjab.

However, after non-provision of the data by the Punjab cane commissioner, the DG FIA, on Feb 29, 2020, wrote another letter, No PS/DG/FIA/2020/381, to the Punjab chief secretary, stating that the cane commissioner Punjab did not provide the team with the required data. The DG FIA has now given the deadline of March 2, 2020 for submission of the required data.

The letter stated that sugar crushing and stock position data was requested from 30-11-2019 to 25-02-2020 while the Punjab cane commissioner furnished only data of 25-02-2020.

The DG FIA stated that information of sugarcane crushing, stocks position of all 40 mills was sought from Punjab but it furnished only seven mills’ details and data of 33 remaining sugar mills was missing.

Also, the information provided about the Shakarganj sugar mills is not as per shared format. Furthermore, it was pointed out that the information provided in Annexure-F was also not as per format, provided by the FIA.

The FIA DG also asked for sharing the average ex-mill price of sugar for the last three years (month-wise). It also sought specific information regarding closed mills with date of closure.

The FIA also asked submission of the Urban Unit report for the third party monitoring of sugar production, supplies and prices. The data of per day ethanol production of the sugar mills was also sought.

However, sources in the FIA and the Punjab government confirmed that the Punjab cane commissioner was unable to furnish the required data asked by the DG FIA till the given deadline. The FIA official said that the DG was very much concerned about non-furnishing of the required data in given time-frame and he might take up the issue with the Punjab chief secretary.

When contacted, Cane Commissioner Punjab Wajid Ali Shah said that data was being provided to the FIA on daily basis. He said that earlier data was sent to the FIA and now they had asked for further data.

He confirmed that some data was shared while remaining would also be shared. ‘Some data will be shared tonight (Monday night),” he said adding that further data would be shared as it was mandate of the inquiry team to gather all required data and analyse it. He confirmed that three to four letters had been received from the FIA for data sharing and the department was sharing it accordingly.