LAHORE: The Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA) flayed the federal finance minister for giving statement about probing into sugar price. The PSMA spokesman said the association would like to clarify that due to glut-like situation in Pakistan and lack of permission for export of sugar prices touched the lowest ebb due to over-supply in the market resultantly the price declined to a level of Rs 45-46 per kg which can never be considered a bench mark. He said as a matter of fact, the federal government has itself fixed an assessable price of sugar at Rs 60 per kg which means that sale price of sugar should be Rs 66 to retrieve the amount of sales tax. Sugarcane price is fixed by the provincial governments and price of sugar is left at the mercy of market forces. The federal government itself has failed to support the export of sugar while the country was in dire need of foreign exchange and there is still a huge amount of growers payable. The federal government despite the fact that surplus quantity of sugar was available allowed only 425,000 tonnes of sugar when price of sugar was high in the international market. He said the industry could have easily disposed of without seeking any rebate. Now after about three months time and recommendation of Sugar Advisory Board to allow export of 1.2 million tonnes of sugar only 300,000 tonnes of sugar was allowed by Economic Coordination Committee of the Cabinet and that too without rebate. Now that international market price is at a level of US$ 380 per tonne it is important to dispose of the surplus sugar with rebate from the government in view of fixed price of sugarcane by the government. The federal finance minister should also ask for cost of production of sugar mills before making any negative statement. The entire stock of sugar industry is pledged with banks and at the current level of prices due to glut-like situation it is impossible to de-pledge the stocks and deliver to the customers. Spokesman of PSMA said, “We are heading towards another bumper year and we foresee that sugar industry will not be able to pay to the growers in the absence of coherent sugar export policy.” Published in Daily Times, August 10th 2017.