ECC orders food ministry to check sugar smuggling, hoarding

With an almost 77 per cent jump in sugar prices in about four months, the maiden meeting of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Caretaker Cabinet on Monday asked the Ministry of National Food Security to coordinate with relevant agencies and authorities “to check smuggling and hoarding of sugar”. The meeting of the ECC presided over by Finance Minister Dr Shamshad Akhtar was called for a single-point agenda “Cancellation of Export Quota of Sugar with Ban on Export of Sugar” but noted that a ban already existed with effect from Aug 10 under a previous decision of the ECC in June. This was despite the fact that the meeting was informed that sugar stock was no more than 2.27 million tonnes in the country and Sindh government had already increased sugarcane price by 41pc over the previous year and the Lahore High Court had suspended on May 4 an order that fixed sugar price at Rs99 per kg and maintained status quo since then while prices went beyond Rs175 per kg in the market. Ministry of National Food Security & Research (MNFSR) briefed the meeting about the production, stock position of sugar, consumption and rising prices of sugar in the market, and its impact on overall food inflation. “The ECC reviewed its previous decision regarding the export quota of sugar and after detailed discussion and deliberation, decided that in light of the previous decision of the ECC on the matter, the ban on export of sugar was already in place post August 10, 2023”, an official statement said adding that MNFSR was directed to prepare and submit regular reports on availability of sugar stocks, consumption, and pricing to the ECC in order to enable it to monitor the availability and pricing of this important commodity.