Industries ministry sets retail price of sugar at Rs88.24 per kilo

ISLAMABAD: The federal industries ministry has Friday fixed the retail prices of sugar at Rs88.24 a kilo with immediate effect noting that all the taxes and costs are inclusive in this price, ARY News reported.

A notification by the ministry to that effect asserted the actions will be taken against those found hoarding the essential commodity or overcharging the consumers.

The controller-general of prices and supplies has written to the provincial and federal administrations on the development and said the authorities overseeing the pricing in their respective regions will furnish the performance reports.

This new charted price of sugar will remain in effect until November 15, 2021, the notification read, adding that since sugar is in the list of essential commodities this decision is made in the public interest.

It said the sugar mills have failed to voluntarily bring down the prices of sugar and in the course of seven months, the prices have been hiked to Rs100 a kilo from earlier Rs90.

The ex-mill prices were shown to be Rs88.24 according to the Federal Board of Revenue data, it said, adding that this price included profit margin as well based on the six months’ data. According to which the ex-mill prices compute to be Rs70 a kilo instead.

The cane commissioner has already corroborated the ex-mill prices, the notification said.

READ: ECC approves increasing prices of flour, ghee, sugar

Earlier today in the relevant development, the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) approved increasing the prices of three essential commodities including flour, sugar and ghee to rationalise the provision of subsidies by the Utility Stores Corporation.

The ECC approved the revision in prices of three essential commodities including flour (20-kilogram bag) to Rs950, Ghee to Rs260 per kg and sugar to Rs85 per kg respectively owing to an increasing gap between the subsidized prices offered by USC and the prevailing market prices.

Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin chaired the meeting of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet held at the Finance Division today.