USC faces severe shortage of sugar

LAHORE: The Utility Stores Corporation (USC) is facing a severe shortage of sugar currently, according to sources.

It has to cancel tenders for the purchase of 35,000 metric tonnes of sugar under the Prime Minister’s relief package, after the mills refused to sell the commodity to the corporation.

Sources said that none of the sugar mills in the country participated in the bidding process, forcing it to cancel the tenders. The sugar mills cited the exhaustion of their stocks as the main reason for not participating in the USC bidding process.

The USC, in its previous tenders, managed to procure only 4,000 metric tonnes of sugar against the procurement call of 35,000 metric tonnes. That stock was purchased for Rs88 per kg, which cost the USC Rs94 per kg after including the transportation and allied expenditures.