Details have emerged about a meeting held yesterday, chaired by Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar, regarding the rise in sugar prices. As per news report by Pakistani media Minute Mirror, sugar mill owners were initially resistant to giving up their right to determine prices for commercial consumers. After some reluctance, they agreed to set the ex-mill price of sugar at 159 rupees per kilogram for one month. However, the mill owners have expressed a desire to establish two different prices for sugar, but the government team has firmly rejected the idea of dual pricing.
In their proposal, sugar mill owners suggested selling sugar at a lower price for household consumers while charging a higher rate for commercial users.
Officials also expressed worries that wholesalers could sell the subsidized sugar to beverage companies and bakeries at commercial rates, creating an artificial shortage in the market and leading to inflated prices. As a result of these disagreements, it has been decided that another meeting will be held after Eid to further address the issue of sugar pricing.
Earlier, Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar had announced that the ex-mill price of sugar would be set at 159 rupees per kilogram, while the retail price would remain at 164 rupees per kilogram for the next month.
Speaking about the sugar price issue, Dar explained that the Prime Minister had established a committee to look into concerns regarding sugar pricing. He noted that the committee reviewed the sugar mill owners’ concerns and explored measures to curb price fluctuations. Dar emphasized that sugar prices had been rising repeatedly, which led to the formation of a sub-committee, headed by Rana Tanveer Hussain, to monitor pricing.
Reaffirming the pricing decision, Dar confirmed that for the next month, the ex-mill price of sugar will remain at 159 rupees, while the retail price will stay at 164 rupees per kilogram. He also mentioned that 274 subsidized markets are currently selling sugar at 130 rupees per kilogram, assuring that there is no sugar shortage in the country. Dar stressed that any violations of this directive will result in strict penalties.
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