Islamabad Chamber Of Commerce And Industry For Allowing Private Sector To Import Wheat

Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) Thursday urged the government to allow the private sector to import wheat in order to avert any flour crisis that could arise in the country In a statement, ICCI President Muhammad Ahmed Waheed said the Punjab government had set a target of 4.5 million tonnes for wheat procurement while it has only 4.1 million tonnes so far

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th Jun, 2020 ) :Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) Thursday urged the government to allow the private sector to import wheat in order to avert any flour crisis that could arise in the country In a statement, ICCI President Muhammad Ahmed Waheed said the Punjab government had set a target of 4.5 million tonnes for wheat procurement while it has only 4.1 million tonnes so far.

He said the flour mills were used to procure wheat from middlemen for their own use every year but this year under the guise of Hoarding Ordinance, the administration of each district was conducting raids to confiscate wheat purchased by flour mills from the middlemen for their own use.

Muhammad Ahmed Waheed further said that the flour mills were purchasing wheat from middlemen at Rs 1700 per 40 kg, but government was purchasing at Rs 1400 per 40 kg from them He said that flour mills were not allowed to keep sufficient stock as only one day's stock was allowed to them despite the fact that each flour was given a permit of 100-ton wheat.

He expressed the fear that this policy of the government may cause a flour crisis in the country.

He appealed to Federal Minister for food Security Syed Fakhr Imam to allow the private sector to import wheat as there was a shortage of about two million tonnes of wheat this year.

He further said that wheat in Islamabad comes from other districts due to which flour mills owners have to deal with police and administration of about five districts.

He said the wheat purchased by flour mills of this region at expensive rates was forcibly added to the government stock, which was unjustified.

He strongly appealed to the relevant government authorities to allow flour mills to keep stock of two months besides permitting them to import wheat without delay so as to avoid any flour crisis.