ISLAMABAD – The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has advised the government to abstain from the wheat procurement drive during the current financial year, without selling off its current stock of 6.5 million tonnes of wheat, against which government departments still owe Rs 250 billion.
A Finance Ministry official said the SBP had asked the government to take urgent steps to reduce the commodity loan of Rs 351 billion. The federal and provincial departments had taken loans of Rs 250 billion for wheat procurement and Rs 101 billion for sugar and urea imports. Punjab has to payback Rs 160 billion for wheat purchase, while Sindh owes Rs 25 billion in this regard.
The SBP has told the government that wheat procurement should be made only if available stocks were disposed of for profit. Similarly, it advised the TCP to stay away from sugar and urea imports and let the private sector play its role. With an expected bumper wheat crop of 23 million tonnes in the current year, the government had announced on January 30 that it would procure 6.5 million tonnes of wheat from farmers at the official support price of Rs 950 per 40 kilogramme.
