The Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP), complying with the federal government directives, has completed the procurement of 200,000 tons of sugar from local sugar mills Sources told Business Recorder on Tuesday that the government paid more than Rs 10 billion to 45 mills in this regard. Although, TCP”s last sugar purchase tender was for 200,000 tons, however, 10,000 tons of extra sweetener was procured from Adam Sugar Mill on the directive of the court.
In May this year, the Economic Co-ordination Committee (ECC) had asked the TCP to procure 200,000 tons of sugar from domestic mills on the request of Pakistan Sugar Mills Association, who insisted that they had been facing financial difficulties because of the bumper sugarcane crop and a decline in the commodity”s price.
On May 21, the TCP issued third sugar procurement tender and on June 11, finalised deals with some 44 mills for procuring 200,000 tons of sugar at Rs 50,510 per ton. After completion of all legal formalities, TCP started making payments to mills and took charge of sugar, which will remain in mills” warehouses under the supervision of ”Muqadam”. The procured commodity will be directly supplied to outlets of the Utility Stores Corporation and other departments as per their demand.
“We have made payment of Rs 10.59 billion to 45 sugar mills against 209,700 tons of sugar. All payments have been made after completion of all formalities,” a TCP official said. Sugar was procured on ECC directives to build up domestic stocks, besides enabling sugar mills to make payments of sugarcane growers and banks, he added. Before this purchase, the overall procurement of sugar by the state-run grain trader had touched 687,000 tons during the last year.
In the first phase, 378,000 tons of sugar was procured at Rs 46,250 per ton in December last year, while in the second phase, about 100,000 tons of sugar was purchased at Rs 45,720 per ton. As much as Rs 23 billion has been spent on sugar procurement from domestic mills, sources said.
After taking physical charge of 200,000 tons of sugar, TCP”s sugar stocks touched 409,322 million tons. Of the total procured sugar, 277,677 tons were supplied to Utility Store Corporation (USC) and other provincial food departments to meet their demand. Additionally, some 30,000 tons of sugar would also be exported to Tajikistan from TCP stocks, they added. The country harvested a bumper sugarcane crop of 58 million tons last year, followed by record sugar production of 4.2 million tons against the annual local consumption of about 3.6 million tons.
