Cabinet places sugar price cap

The cabinet has placed a price cap on sugar to regulate its export in a bid to avoid manipulation of domestic prices. Sources informed The Express Tribune that the cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, decided that if the retail price of sugar exceeds the benchmark ex-mill price or the retail price plus Rs2, further exports will be immediately stopped. In the past, there have been several sugar export scandals where the price of sugar in the domestic market shot up soon after the government allowed exports. In some cases, the export of sugar did not materialize, but the price in the local market skyrocketed, enabling the sugar millers to pocket billions from consumers. This is the reason the current government allowed the export of the commodity but placed a cap on domestic prices.