Sugar price shoots up to Rs160/per kg in Pakistan

Sugar price spiked to Rs160 per kg in retail markets across Pakistan, ARY News reported on Friday, quoting Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) report.

The official data shows people of Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Karachi are buying expensive sugar in Pakistan with the cost of Rs160 per kg.

The sugar is sold at Rs155 per kg in Gujranwala, Sialkot, Khuzdar and Quetta, while the commodity’s per kg rate is Rs150 in Faisalabad, Sargodha, Multan and Larkana.

In Rawalpindi and Lahore, the commodity is sold at Rs150 per kg, while in Sargodha, Multan and Gujranwala, the sugar per kg rate is Rs145.

In Bannu and Quetta the per kg sugar price is Rs150, while in Hyderabad Rs148 per kg and in Bahawalpur and Sukkur, the sugar price is Rs145 per kg.

Read more: Govt ‘considers’ excise duty on sugar to bridge tax shortfall

On Thursday, it emerged that the Pakistan government is ‘considering’ to impose Federal Excise Duty (FED) on sugar to address the ongoing tax shortfall.

As per details, the government is reportedly considering FED on the sugar to minimise the tax shortfall ahead of IMF review for the second tranche of the ongoing loan programme.

Proposals to levy FED per kilogram of sugar have been forwarded to PM Shehbaz Sharif for approval, alongside suggestions to revise the current sales tax mechanism on sugar.

The proposals have been drafted by Minister of State for Finance, the Chairman of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), and the Secretary of the Ministry of Finance.