ISLAMABAD; Physical verification of sugar mills stocks, has given a new twist to the on-going sugar crisis of the commodity. The officially verified data raises serious questions about the reporting system of sugar sector.
It also raises many serious questions over the credibility of sugar production data submitted by the provincial cane commissioners to the federal government. The provincial cane commissioners were relying on data provided by the sugar mills association to the cane commissioners offices and it was being submitted as it is to the federal government for its consumption at different forums like federal cabinet and Economic Coordination Committee (ECC).
Sources said the PTI government used the same unverified and unrealistic data of sugar production and stocks available to allow export of one million tons of sugar.
Jahangir Tareen, owner of JWD sugar mills and once a Pakistan Tehrik Insaf (PTI) stalwart and close confident of Imran Khan, and Khusro Bakhtiar, another sugar barren from southern Punjab, also played a key role in persuading the key decision-making forums like federal cabinet and Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) to allow export of the commodity on the basis of fudged data.
“By May this year, the officials kept on presenting fudged data of sugar to the government to justify export that pushed prices up in the local market and then turned into a crisis”, a government official confirmed to NEWSMAN on the condition of anonymity.
As per physically verified figures of July 23, 2020 sugar stocks available for four and half months stood at 1.574 million tons against consumption of over 1.8 million tons. These figures show a shortfall of 0.225 million tons in stock and demand. The government which is already facing huge political pressure due to rising prices of sugar would need to take some corrective measures like import of sugar to ease out pressure on prices in the coming months. Any delay or negligence on the government part may further fuel-up sugar prices before the commencement of next crushing season.
An importer, who did not want to be named, told this correspondent that imported sugar (C& F Karachi price as of today’s global market rate of $ 364 per tons) will be Rs 80 a kg. If the international market goes up further with the news of import of commodity by Pakistan, it can even cost more for Pakistan in the months like September and October this year, he said. The sugarcane crushing season should commence from mid of November this year, but previous years’ pattern shows it usually starts from the first week of December. If the industry keeps up previous pattern and starts crushing season from the first week of December, Pakistan would need another minimum 0.5 million tons of imported sugar.