Pakistan

LHC seeks reply from federal govt to fix price of wheat per maund

The Lahore High Court (LHC) sought a response from the federal government on May 14 on the various petitions filed to fix the new price of wheat.

Lahore: LHC seeks reply from federal govt to fix price of wheat per maund. A two-member bench headed by Justice Ali Baqer Najafi heard the plea of the advocate Bilal Ahmed.

The petitioner took a stand that according to the reports, the federal government imported 35 million tonnes of wheat despite having four million metric tonnes of wheat.

Due to the federal government’s import of wheat, the national treasury lost Rs1 billion.

The Punjab government has maintained the same price of wheat as it was last year.

The monthly fee percentage has been increased but the rate of farmers was not increased.

The petitioner prayed the court that the government be ordered to fix the new price of wheat.

Read More: 400bn wheat import issue storm in a teacup: Kakar

THE so-called wheat import scam has taken a new turn, as the government-appointed investigating committee has begun interviewing officials to identify those responsible for authorising wheat imports over the anticipated shortages.

The hue and cry over the issue is more ‘political’ than economic, indicating that the federal government needs strategies to manage the country’s expected wheat surplus. In any case, Punjab farmers are affected by the agricultural department’s ineffective governance structure.

Wheat imports necessitate a thorough inquiry, beginning with those who generate estimates of potential wheat shortages in the country and ending with those who issue wheat import permits. The committee should also investigate whether the minimum support price of Rs4,000 per 40 kg at the sowing stage was determined properly or arbitrarily on someone’s instructions.

The import of 3.612 million tonnes of wheat in FY24 may be a minor concern, but the main issue is to improve the reporting mechanisms for wheat production and consumption in provincial agriculture departments and the Federal Ministry of Food Security. Many analysts argued that the government was diverting people’s attention away from the underlying issue by forming committees to investigate private-sector-led imports that received no government subsidies.

Wheat imports meet government permission, according to the first fact-finding committee. Still, the government removed the Ministry of Food Security secretary and the Plant Protection Department director general before the investigative committee report to show Punjab farmers that the federal government cares. On Saturday, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif held a meeting in Lahore to consider the issue and form a new committee while his elder brother Nawaz Sharif requested a National Accountability Bureau inquiry.

The question is: why are farmers in Punjab protesting alone? Wheat imports are not confined to Punjab; private firms in Karachi also imported the wheat. There are two interpretations: Sindh harvesting was completed before March, and the provincial government fulfilled its commitment to purchase wheat from farmers at the agreed-upon price of Rs4,000 per 40kg. Then it begs whether the wheat issue is being addressed appropriately in Punjab.

The number one wheat importer is Trading Louis Dreyfus, a French commodities and grain company with an office in Karachi and an eight-day shipping time. This company bought 849,448 tonnes of wheat, accounting for 24pc of total wheat imports. United Resources Corporations is the second largest importer, accounting for 520,442 tonnes and 15pc of total private sector imports in FY24. There are 65 total wheat importers, 17 of which are flour mills that also import wheat. The plant protection agency is estimated to have issued approximately 1,000 permits to these importers.

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