Flourmills end protest as govt promises to remove hurdles in exports

[Lahore_Real_Estate]

ISLAMABAD/KARACHI: Pakistan Flour Mills Association (PFMA) Monday announced to reopen mills and call off a five-day long protest after the government promised to remove hurdles in wheat flour exports to Afghanistan.

In a joint news conference after a meeting of PFMA with the Federal Minister of Food and Agriculture Nazar Muhammad Gondal, the association announced to end the protest and asked the mill owners to resume wheat grinding and start supplies to the market.

PFMA chairman Muhammad Iqbal Dawood, while announcing the decision, also demanded of the government to withdraw one percent turnover tax imposed on the mills in the current fiscal year.

An office bearer of the association told The News that on the Chamman and Torkham borders, the political agents, police, custom and the Frontier Constabulary (FC) take bribe of about Rs90,000 per truck. He said that the rampant corruption badly affects smooth transportation of wheat products to Afghanistan.

The Food Minister said that PFMA chairman and its representatives discussed their problems in detail and on his assurance decided to end their protest.

After arrival of new wheat crop of around 23.87 million tons and over 3.5 million tons carry over stock of the previous year, the government decided to allow export 200,000 tons of wheat products and another two million tons of wheat, he said.

This quota for wheat and products could be increased with the consent of Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet, he said.

The flourmill owners shuttered their operations following Sindh government’s imposed a ban on the inter-district movement of wheat.

The minister said he would discuss the matter with the Sindh chief minister in a meeting on Tuesday and assured that the ban imposed by Sindh would be lifted.

Other problems would be resolved through Inter-Provincial committee, and with the intervention of interior ministry, he said.

Iqbal Dawood told the meeting that around 1,000 flourmills remained shut in the country protesting over a ban on wheat movement by Sindh and illegal restrictions by other provinces.

Flourmills were not only facing the issue of restriction on movement of wheat in Sindh, but also in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces but restriction on wheat movement in Sindh was the major issue.

The Sindh Food Department said it had imposed only section 144 over wheat movement within the province. There is no inter-provincial ban, one official told The News.

Sindh has purchased around 1.5 million tons of wheat from growers in the province with an investment of nearly Rs35 billion. The province fears loss of revenue and grain if wheat is allowed from other provinces.

The meeting in Islamabad on Monday did not resolve the issue, as Sindh said that the ban on the movement of wheat remains its internal matter. But flour millers have called off their shutdown, as the matter would be put in front of the Prime Minister.

The federal minister also discussed the issue with Chief Secretary Sindh and Governor Balochistan by phone.

Sources said a high level inter-provincial meeting on the wheat issue would be held in Islamabad in a day or two, which will be presided over by either the Prime Minister or Interior Minister Rehman Malik.

Sindh Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah is also likely to attend a meeting over the water dispute between Sindh and Punjab on Tuesday in Islamabad.

Chairman PFMA was optimistic that the un-official inter-provincial ban would be lifted. However, he said they have given an ultimatum to the government that if the ban is not lifted, they would shutdown mills again after 10 days.

He said the availability of wheat was not an issue this year, as the government itself wanted to get rid of at least 200,000 tons of wheat.

Despite the countrywide shutdown call by PFMA, a majority of the flourmills continued their milling in Karachi and no shortage was witnessed in the metropolitan. “Flour demand, supply and prices have remained normal,” said Farid Qureshi, General Secretary Karachi Retail Grocers Association.