ISLAMABAD: In an important meeting, the government and Pakistan Sugar Mills
Association (PSMA) managed to sort out most of thorny issues and as a result the latter agreed conditionally to commence crushing season 2021-22 from November 15, 2021.
PSMA team comprising Iskander Khan, Javed Kayani, Aslam Farooq and 7 others conveyed to the government decision-makers that the industry was ready to start crushing season from November 15 provided the government arranges working capital for the mills to make payments to the growers of their crop within 15 days.
The PSMA presented a long list of punitive actions taken by the Punjab Cane Commissioner against different mills. The industry representatives told the official side that the millers in Punjab were facing cases and arrests as Punjab Cane Commissioner was damaging the industry intentionally. PSMA team demanded immediate halt of this ‘ugly’ practice so that sugar industry could play its due role in progress of the country.
Requesting anonymity one of 10-member PSMA delegation told NEWSMAN on Tuesday that the government side, headed by the prime minister’s advisor on Finance, Shaukat Aziz, agreed to put an end to a year -long ‘malicious’ campaign against the sugar industry, besides providing it a conducive environment to carry out its crushing season 2021-22 from November 15, 2021.
According to the source, the government side agreed to review the cases filed against the industry by different government departments like Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP), National Accountability Bureau (NAB), Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and Punjab government.
Since 2019, the Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI) government is continuously taking punitive actions against the sugar industry and its market network like whole sale sugar dealers. As a result , sugar supply chain has completely disturbed. Many sugar dealers have shifted from sugar business to other ones.
There has been absolutely no benefit of chasing down different players of sugar sector by the PTI government. Rather, the government policy of painting the millers and other players of sugar sector as rogue characters and registering criminal cases against them have proven counter- productive. The punitive actions have resulted in creating panic in the market and add uncertainity factor to take the commodity prices all time high in the recent weeks.
Shaukat Tarin and other members of his team including Chaudhary Monis Elahi, Fakhar Imam and Hammad Azhar agreed to most of demands made by PSMA in the meeting. Shaukat Tarin assured to PSMA team that he will take every possible step to meet their demands . In particular, he assured PSMA team that the government will ensure availability of working capital for the industry to facilitate it for timely start of crushing season.
