According to the report, which the government made public last month, a ‘sugar cartel’ comprising of 88 sugar millers were responsible for the skyrocketing prices of sugar in the country.
“[The] sugar mill owners and their associates took benefit of PKR100bn (US$614.9m) to PKR150bn (US$922.4m) every year,” said Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Accountability Shahzad Akbar in a statement to media.
“If PKR1 (US$0.0061) is increased in the price of sugar, it gives PKR5.2bn (US$68.8m)to the sugar mill owners and, according to the report, PKR15 (US$0.092) per kg production cost was increased by the mill owners and another additional PKR15 (US$0.092) per kg additional amount is being charged to consumers by market forces, which means that consumer is paying additional PKR30 (US$0.18) per kg.”
In addition to this, the sugar millers were also accused of pocketing billions of rupees (millions of dollars) worth of subsidies, tax evasion, not declaring production and sales, falsifying reports, deceptive marketing, and various other violations of the law.
At present, sugar prices in Pakistan stand at PKR85 (US$0.52) per kg, even higher than numbers in January this year (PKR74/US$0.48 per kg) and way higher than in 2017-2018 (PKR53.75/US$0.35 per kg).
PSMA has directly rejected everything outlined in the report, claiming that the ‘facts were distorted’, that market forces had been ‘ignored’, that the inquiry committee was ‘lacking in expertise to judge the sugar crisis and relevant accounting’ and that it was ‘ignorant of the sugar sector’s ground realities’, amongst others.
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June 11, 2020 at 09:08AM
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Bitter-sweet revelations: Pakistan sugar millers deny corruption findings as accusations fly - FoodNavigator-Asia.com
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