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Thursday March 28, 2024

Punjab initiates monthly grinding audit of flour mills

By Munawar Hasan
August 06, 2020

LAHORE: The Punjab Food Department has initiated grinding audit of flour mills with a view to ensuring availability of flour in the market.

The provincial food directorate has issued instructions to all the district food controllers for ‘monitoring and execution of interim wheat release policy’. Under the directive, it is conveyed to district food controllers to undertake monthly grinding audit of every flour mill being issued public wheat. By and large, it added, the provisions and agreements executed by DFCs under the policy with the flour mills empower them to enforce the policy provisions and provisions of laws/regulations.

The DFCs have been asked to ensure issuance of licences to flour dealers within the timelines given in the policy. Moreover, grinding audit of the flour mills be carried out in the light of the policy and action, if warranted under the circumstances of the case, may be taken under the SOPs.

Report on the action taken on grinding audit of flour mills must be shared with the Directorate on completion of assignment on monthly basis. DFCs are also asked to ensure updating of data by flour mills on Flour Ledger Management Information System.

Furthermore, availability and prices of subsidised wheat flour in the market must be ensured in collaboration with district administrations in an effective manner. The latest instructions about audit of flour mills have been passed in pursuance of decisions of the provincial cabinet in its 32nd meeting on July 2, 2020 in which Interim Release Policy was approved.

As per the policy, flour mills are bound to make entries of wheat lifted, wheat grinded and flour that should have been produced and flour actually produced on the Flour Ledger Management Information System.

The flour mills will be bound to supply detail of flour dealers with their valid food grains licence numbers for which a grace period of one month was provided in the policy. Period of one month is about to lapse meaning thereby that substantial progress in issuance of food grains licences to flour dealers must have been made by now.

Similarly, the mills failing to upload data daily on Flour Ledger Management Information System will not be entitled to get wheat from the Punjab food department. In addition to issuing direction to DFCs, provincial food department has separately constituted special teams for random checking of flour mills regarding grinding, production, maintenance of required extraction ratio, supply and tracking of flour to the dealers/retailers in the open market. Meanwhile, it is learnt that provincial food department allowed flour mills to market 15kg flour bags in a move to overcome shortage of flour in the market. Under the new arrangements, flour mills can manufacture fine/special flour out of wheat purchased from the open market. The price of 15kg bag has not been fixed by the food department rather the wheat rate in the open market would dictate price of flour in new packing.