Sugar Mills Taste The Sweetness of Their Corruption
Nearly 81 mills were taken into account for violating the Competition Act 2010 by fixing the sugar prices
Violating the Competition Act 2010, Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA) will bear a penalty worth Rs 44 billion imposed by the Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP).
Nearly 81 sugar mills were taken into account for embezzlement and exploitation of the farmers.
A four-member bench of the commission was constituted on the issue.
Although two of the CCP members gave dissenting opinions over the commission’s decision, the chairman and another member voted in favor of the penalty on the PSMA.
Earlier, the commission conducted an investigation and ascertained that the sugar mills had violated the Competition Act 2010 by fixing the sugar price.
The maximum fine for a contravention of the Act is Rs 75 billion according to the split decision.
In this regard, the CCP penalized PSMA and directed it to pay the amount within two months.
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The statement by CCP highlighted that the sugar mills under the PSMA obtained the quota of utility stores and imported sugar through a nexus during 2012-2020 and affected the domestic supply of sugar.
Back in 2019, the PSMA sold 20,000 metric tons of sugar to utility stores in Punjab, making a lot of money, and the sugar mills owners took subsidies by blackmailing the government.
The PSMA made zonal committees in Punjab for determining the price, stock in the market and made their own decisions in that regard.
Moreover, they illegally stopped crushing at 15 sugar mills in the Punjab zone from December 2019 to January 2020.
The decision negatively impacted farmers who suffered severe losses and stood in lines outside the mills for several days.
