LAHORE: Talks between Punjab Food Department and the Pakistan Flour Mills Association (PFMA) Monday failed to evolve a workable formula to grant permission to millers for wheat purchase and hike in flour price.
Wheat flour supply to market was suspended on the first day of strike. An extensive round of talks was held between the two sides, but the mill owners reportedly did not show any flexibility regarding the strike and increase in the flour price. They demanded end to harassment by the administration through raids on mills.
The flour body was represented by PFMA Central Chairman Asim Raza, and PFMA Punjab Chairman Abdul Rauf Mukhtar, while provincial government team was led by Secretary Food Waqas Mehmood.
According to the government team, both parties agreed on the ability of flour mills to procure wheat freely. It is in government’s own interest also, a senior official said. But, he hastened to add that as far as the rates of flour are concerned on the pretext of higher prices of wheat in the open market, the government would not budge an inch on the issue.
He said the controller general of prices in the Industries Department or the deputy commissioners fix price of flour, and not the Food Department, when the mills buy wheat from the open market. In contrast, the official said, the Food Department fixed the prices only when it released wheat to the mills.
It is learnt that the Food Department pressurised the flour body not to increase the flour rate during Ramazan and 20-kg bag of flour must be sold for Rs805 in the market.
However, according to the flour body, as price of wheat had climbed to Rs1,500-1,600 per maund, the flour rate needed to be increased without any delay by up to Rs30-40 per 20kg bag.
They asked the government to start providing wheat to flour mills through official quota at controlled rates if it did not want to see increase in the price of flour. They said flour price was bound to increase according to the trend in rates of wheat.
Majid Abdullah, a representative of progressive milling group, said the government should allow flour mills to buy grains freely to meet the demand in dry period, between May and August-September. Otherwise, he cautioned, the government would have to release wheat early to flour mills to bridge imbalance in the demand and supply of grains even in the dry period. Moreover, he said, it was logical to fix price of flour as per prevailing wheat rates in the market. On the issue, he observed, the authorities could never push the flour mills to the wall.
The ruling flour body, on the other hand, suspected that there were officials working in the Food Department, who did not want patch-up between the flour mill owners and the provincial government over the lingering issues.
Meanwhile, indiscriminate operations by the Punjab Food Department were under way across Punjab for confiscation of, what they called, hoarded grains.
On Monday, the Food Department, under the supervision of Senior and Food Minister Abdul Aleem Khan, carried out raids against stockists across the province. As many as 5,000 maunds of wheat, stored in Layyah district, was recovered and a case was registered in that regard. Action was also taken against alleged hoarders in Vehari where 8,500 sacks of wheat were confiscated and shifted to a food centre.
In another operation, the Food Department, along with the district administration, recovered 50,000 maunds of wheat in Jalalpur Pirwala, district Multan. The authorities have so far recovered 53,000 tonnes of hoarded grains. A headway in talks is expected on Tuesday (today) and flour mills might start grinding wheat after reaching consensus with the government over wheat procurement policy.
