Govt retains export ban on sugar despite surplus stock

ISLAMABAD: The federal government has retained the export ban on sugar despite having a surplus stock of 1.2 million tons, market sources told ARY News.

Sources told ARY News that the country has a surplus stock of sugar of 1.2 million tons worth over $1 billion but the federal government was reluctant to lift the export ban.

After lifting the export ban on sugar, the government could formulate a strategy to export the surplus stocks in phases to inject over $1 billion into the national exchequer.

It was suggested to the government to allow mills for exporting 500,000 tons of sugar in the first phase.

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However, the Sugar Advisory Commission failed to take a decision on exporting surplus sugar despite the country facing a shortage of dollars and the slow pace of sugar exports.

In May, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif ordered a complete ban on the export of sugar to stabilise the commodity price in the country.

According to the Prime Minister’s Office, PM Shehbaz Sharif had also ordered stringent measures against sugar smuggling.

Taking to Twitter, the prime minister announced on May 9 that he had directed for sternly dealing with hoarders, illegal profiteers and the elements involved in creating an artificial shortage of sugar.

Import of luxury items

On the other hand, the federal cabinet approved the Economic Coordination Committee’s (ECC) decision to lift the ban on the import of luxury items.

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According to the ECC’s decision import ban on items such as cosmetics, tissue papers, pet food, fish, footwear, fruits and dry fruits has been lifted.

Furniture, ice creams, jams and jellies, leather jackets, shampoo, sunglasses, ketchup, arms and ammunition, pasta, musical instruments, frozen meat, door and window frames, decoration articles, travel bags, suitcases, crockery and corn flakes can also be imported after the lifting of the ban.

The government decided to ban the import of luxury items due to an alarmingly high trade deficit.

The Ministry of Commerce had notified a ban on May 20 on the import of 38 non-essential luxury items under an “emergency economic plan”.