LAHORE: After strong protest of Punjab government and identification of military and business circles related to wheat, the federal government has imposed a complete ban on the import of private wheat yesterday.
The Federal Minister of Finance has expressed concern over the import of 8 lakh tons of surplus wheat worth millions of dollars and said that the shortfall of wheat in the country was 24 lakh tons when it was fulfilled then why the import was not stopped.
Apart from this, the Agriculture Department of Punjab has officially informed the Federal Ministry of National Food Security that due to weather conditions, the production of wheat in the province is estimated to be reduced to 22.4 million tons this year.
Additionally, the federal government is facing difficulties due to the delay in receiving the final decision on official wheat procurement targets from Punjab, the federal ministry is unable to make progress in issuing loans from banks for wheat procurement across the country. The food department of Punjab will have to bear a bank markup of more than 20 billion rupees for handling the surplus imported wheat equivalent to 8 lakh tonnes till the next release season.
Yesterday, a wet board meeting was held under the chairmanship of Federal Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb, in which officials from federal provinces and wheat importers participated. In the meeting, the federal minister was told that last year there was a shortfall of 24 lakh tons in wheat production and requirements in the country, to meet which the private sector was allowed to import wheat and so far 32 lakh 20 thousand tons of wheat has been imported.
The Federal Ministry suggested that 20% regulatory duty should be imposed on the wheat arriving after March 31, however, on this occasion, Secretary Food Punjab Moazzam Supra, who participated in the meeting, strongly protested and said that Punjab had requested to stop the import of wheat a long time ago, but the import Continued.
The federal authorities said that under the WTO rules import cannot be banned, but they can impose as much regulatory duty as they want so that there is no import. But the Federal Finance Minister has decided to stop the import of wheat immediately, agreeing with the position of Secretary Food Punjab. The Federal Finance Minister said that I am concerned about importing 8 lakh tons of surplus wheat.
