Millers, wholesalers to determine sugar price

Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani chairing the Council of Common Interest meeting at PM Secretariat on Monday. – Photo by APP

ISLAMABAD: With the prices of sugar skyrocketing, the Council of Common Interests agreed on Monday to a proposal of the federal government to end the role of the Trading Corporation of Pakistan in import and supply of sugar, giving a free hand to millers and wholesalers to determine its price. The move, according to an official, was in compliance with an IMF condition to end subsidy on food items. This means the government will no longer provide subsidised sugar to consumers through utility stores or open market. 

The third CCI meeting, presided over by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and attended by the four chief ministers, approved a proposal made by the Economic Coordination Committee of the cabinet that the government should stop intervention in the market and end subsidy on sugar.