ISLAMABAD : Prime minister , Shahbaz Sharif , got furious over ignoring his orders to make special sugar committee functional on top priority and he summoned Industries minister , Rana Tanvir, to explain the reason as to why he did not implement his orders to call a meeting of newly formed sugar committee and have a comprehensive analysis of sugar sector and make only one government department responsible for collecting reliable data on sugar production, cost of sugar making , future potential and strategy to make sugar industry more efficient to not only meet local demand , but also have surplus commodity to export it and earn foreign exchange.
The prime minister ‘s orders had come some three weeks ago . Rana Tanvir not only ignored the orders of the premier , but also avoided to intimate the members of the committee.
The prime minister ‘s ordered had terms of references (ToRs) of the committee. He is seriously concerned over non- compiling of reliable data , which could be used for decision-making about sugar sector.
After, harsh bashing from the prime minister , Industries minister and his team rushed for two meetings in the last two days. On January 1, 2025 , first meeting of the newly formed committee was held here.
The committee formed two sub committees . One to be headed by Mr Zafar chief of Bureau of Statistics government of Pakistan to make a strategy to collect reliable data of sugar sector and the second led by Dr Abid Suleri , Executive Director , Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) , which will formulate a long term strategy to address issues of sugar sector permanantly.
Interestingly , in the Sugar Advisory Board meeting held here on Friday, State minister for Finance , Ali Perez Malik , refused to give a role to FBR of collecting real time data from sugar mills to have a fool proof statistics to use for the policy -making in the futuee.
He argued that it was not the role of FBR to collect data of sugar production from th mills . Ali Perez Malik ‘s arguments shocked many members of Sugar Advisory Board who believe that it is the responsibility to FBR to use track and trace system and collect real production data from the mills.
“I could not understand Ali Perez Malik’s views when he disagreed to the proposal to assign the task to FBR of using track and trace system effectively” said one of the participants of Friday’s meeting , questioning which department will do this job other than FBR”.
Pakistan’s sugar industry has potential to produce 12 million tons sugar annually against local consumption of 6.5 million tons , but lack of proper policy and big loop holes in revenue collection from the industry is making things worse.
Sugar industry prefers not to make in time payments to the growers and evade tax of billions annually in connivance with FBR. FBR is major party to sugar industry’s tax evasion. Provincial Cane Commissioners are also among sugar industry’s tax evasion.
Loose system fits well to the industry , FBR and provinces’ Cane Commissioners. Each one of them gets due share in tax evasion.
There is nothing good for the country in current loose system of managing sugar industry. For example , red tapism in export of surplus stocks , deprived Pakistan of getting around $ 600 million in 2024.
Pakistan had a good opportunity to earn $ 600 million by exporting surplus sugar, but the relevant government departments remained activity engaged in making data on production controversial and this led to waste of around two and half months. Differences among government departments like ministry of Industries and Production, Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) , provinces and Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA) led to loss of $ 600 million to Pakistan last year.