Punjab decides to cancel wheat procurement policy: sources

LAHORE: The food department has decided to withdraw from its practice of wheat procurement, citing sources ARY News reported on Saturday.

Sources said that a new policy has been devised over the matter and it will become a law and with that the food department’s role in wheat procurement will come to an end.

Sources said that in new policy the private sector will purchase wheat crop from farmers directly. “The government will fix the wheat price in view of the international prices of the commodity,” sources said.

All four provinces of the country will fix unanimous rate of wheat crop, sources said.

It has been hinted that the new experiment will be conducted for two years.

This will remove the burden of billions of rupees interest and storage expenditure over the food department.

Sources said that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has also demanded the provinces to bring their expenses down.

The food department bears a burden of 400 billion rupees in a year in this respect, sources added.

Punjab’s Finance Minister Mujtaba Shuja ur Rehman on Thursday said that the farmers have sold almost all their wheat crop to middlemen.

He said that the federal government had purchased 3.2 million metric tonnes of wheat in the caretaker setup.

“We still have 2.3 mln metric tonnes of wheat in store,” minister said.

He claimed the government’s decision didn’t harm the farmer as they have sold all their crop, and the middlemen have purchased the wheat.

“The wheat’s rate has also not drastically dropped and sold at 3,200 to 3,300 rupees per maund,” provincial minister said. “This rate didn’t harm the farmer but definitely their profit has dropped,” finance minister said.

He said that the decision of non-procurement of wheat from farmers has resulted in lower wheat price in Punjab.