Crackdown on hoarders lowers sugar prices

As a crackdown on sugar hoarders to end artificial increase in the sweetener’s prices has begun making headway, sugar mill owners on Sunday offered to supply the commodity to the Punjab government at a rate of Rs140 per kg. The offer came a day after the provincial government filed a petition with the Lahore High Court to vacate a status quo order the LHC had given months ago against the powers of the provincial authorities to fix sugar prices. The crackdown on sugar mafia across the country, which saw the arrest of dozens of hoarders and seizure of hundreds of tonnes of the commodity, has put the brakes on the rising sugar prices. Instead, prices are significantly coming down in some cities and towns. The sugar price had risen to Rs235 per kg in the retail markets of Chaman and other Balochistan towns, but it has now been reduced to Rs180 per kg as a result of the administrative action against hoarding. In Karachi, a fall of Rs15 per kg has been observed in its rate during the last three days. It is being sold at rates ranging between Rs170 and Rs180 per kg in different towns of Punjab.