ISLAMABAD: The federal government on Friday directed provinces to ensure that sugar mills maintain 15 to 20 per cent stock and asked the interior ministry to check sugar smuggling at Khokhrapar, Torkham and Chaman borders to avert its shortage in future.

The Sugar Advisory Board (SAB), in a meeting chaired by Federal Minister for Industries and Production Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani, reviewed sugar production, stocks and prices.

The board was told that 2.3 million tons of sugar has been produced so far while estimated consumption throughout the country this year is 4.2 million tons.

To meet the shortfall of 1.1 million tons, the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) has been tasked to import 0.5 million tons of sugar in March, while the government is negotiating with Dubai authorities for import of another 0.7 million tons.

The board asked the provincial governments to place their representatives at every sugar mill in order to monitor production on daily basis.

“This is the responsibility of the provincial governments to adopt an effective and transparent mechanism to check daily production of each sugar mill, who is buying sugar, where it is being stocked,” the board said.

It also asked that Provincial governments must ensure that there is no hoarding. The Provincial governments must root out the hoarding menace. The governments should ensure that sugar mills in their respective provinces must maintain 15 per cent to 20 per cent stocks of their production to meet emergency.

The Interior Ministry has been asked to take stringent measures to check smuggling of sugar at Khokhrapar, Torkham and Chamman borders. A letter has been written to Interior Ministry in this regard.

The Board has decided that Utility Stores Corporation would continue to sell sugar at Rs45/-kg at its outlets.

Federal Minister for Food and Agriculture Nazar Muhammad Gondal, Federal Secretary Food and Agriculture, Provincial Secretaries for Agriculture and Industries of the four provinces, Federal Secretary Commerce, Additional Secretary Industries and Production, Aditional Secretary Finance, senior officials from State Bank of Pakistan and Federal Board of Revenue, Managing Director Utility Stores Corporation, Chairman TCP, and Cane Commissioners from Islamabad, Punjab, Sindh, and NWFP attended this meeting.