PM Imran Khan orders publicising sugar sector reforms committee’s report

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan has directed to make the report of sugar sector reforms committee public in which a nexus of mills and hoarders’ mafia was traced for illegally increasing the prices in local markets.

The Sugar Sector Reforms Committee of the federal cabinet issued its report following the instructions of PM Imran Khan which exposed a coordinated mechanism for illegally hiking the sugar prices in the country. The hoarding mafia used to hold the stocks of sugar for impacting the supply and demand, resulting in the hike in prices.

In a 24-page report, it was stated that a sugar mafia was ruling the whole sector by hoarding and using different techniques to prevent from paying sales tax. After hoarding the sugar stocks, the mafia used to sell them at the highest profit rates.

The report also stated that the proportion of sugar production and reserves was inaccurate in the relevant data.

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According to the report, the sugar crops had reached the hands of unregistered persons for hoarding purposes, whereas, sugar sector did not compile complete records.

The committee recommended the federal government to bring improvements in the monitoring and reporting of the sugar sector in collaboration with Suparco besides making an end to the zoning of sugarcane crops. It added that the federal government should also encourage the exports of sugarcane crops to earn revenue.

It has been proposed to give a three-year time to the sugarcane farmers to set sugar prices in accordance with the crop quality. It also suggested not to restrict the farmers to sell the sugarcane crop to specific sugar mills besides increasing the functionality of the Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP).

On Wednesday, Minister for Energy Hammad Azhar had tweeted that the Sugar Reform Committee presented its recommendations to the federal cabinet.

The Sugar Reform Committee chaired by me has presented its recommendations to Cabinet. The PM instructed that report be released & discussed publicly for next 3 weeks. The thrust of reform is towards deregulation, documentation, enhancing competition in sugar sector. 1/2

— Hammad Azhar (@Hammad_Azhar) December 15, 2021

He said that the PM gave instructions that the report should be released and discussed publicly for the next three weeks. “The thrust of reform is towards deregulation, documentation, enhancing competition in the sugar sector,” Hammad Azhar added.