Govt to import sugar at Rs220 per kg to avert 'looming crisis'

• Govt to import 1 million metric tonnes of sugar at inflated rate.
• Public to pay the price for administrative mismanagement.
• Domestic stock is depleted due to over-export by sugar mills.

After being misled by sugar mill owners over 'sufficient' domestic stock, the government has decided to import 1 million metric tonnes of sugar to address the depleted stock of the commodity in the country.

The federal government will import sugar at an inflated price of Rs220 per kilogramme — the burden for which be transferred to the inflation-battered public who will be left with no choice but to buy the commodity at high rates.

The precarious situation is a result of sugar mill owners misleading the government, securing permission for export by reassuring that the country has 'sufficient' stock for domestic use.

A spokesperson for the Punjab Food Department has warned of a possible sugar crisis in the coming days despite having a carry-forward surplus stock of sugar of around 1 million metric tonnes.

To mitigate the situation, authorities have no choice but to utilise the surplus stock. However, doing so will eventually lead to imported sugar being circulated in the market and the consumers will be forced to purchase sugar at Rs220 per kg instead of the official rate of Rs100 per kg.

Meanwhile, sources said that the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) has already written to Pakistan's commercial attache in Brazil to make arrangements for the import of 100,000 metric tonnes of sugar from the South American nation.