The National Assembly (NA) Standing Committee on National Food Security and Research expressed its concerns over the smuggling of wheat and fertilizers and asked for appropriate measures to curb the menace to ensure the supply of the commodity at affordable prices across the country.
The Committee, which met on January 4, 2023, with Rao Muhammad Ajmal Khan, Member National Assembly (MNA) in the Chair also noted that due to the smuggling of wheat, prices of flour in the local market increased, besides the ban on the inter-provincial movement of wheat was another reason to enhance gap between demand and supply in deficit areas and price fluctuation in the open market.
Briefing the Committee, Secretary Ministry of National Food Security and Research Zafar Hassan said that there were sufficient stocks of wheat available to tackle local requirements.
He said that about 1.2 million metric tons of wheat had also been imported and the remaining quantity of 1.4 million metric tons was in the pipeline and would arrive up till March 2023.
He said that delays in wheat releases from the official stocks to millers by the provincial governments were the main reason for price hikes, adding that delayed releases are creating a gap between demand and supply of the commodity and sparking prices in local markets.
He said that the federal government was providing wheat to 11 other national entities as well as to provinces, adding that the demand from provinces increased after recent floods and would be provided an additional 0.6 million tons by importing the commodity. He apprised the meeting that the tendering process for the import of 2.6 million metric tons of wheat was completed, adding that the first tender was awarded in May 2022 and the last was awarded in December 2022, whereas under government-to-government agreement, wheat was also being imported from Russia
Zafar Hassan told the meeting that due to the Russia-Ukraine war, the prices of grains witnessed a worldwide increase, adding that the local markets were also impacted and prices of different commodities went up.
Meanwhile, the meeting was also apprised about the progress of Prime Minister Kissan’s Package and told that an amount of Rs663.9 billion was released by the end of November 2022, adding that the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has issued notification for the waver of Rs10.6 billion on markup on outstanding loans for the subsistence farmers in the flood-hit areas.
Among others, the meeting was attended by Members National Assembly (MNA) Ahmad Raza Mancka, Kamal Uddin, and Sardar Riaz Mehmood Khan. Chairman PARC and other officials of the ministry also attended the meeting.
Source: IBP