Pakistan Agriculture Storage and Services Corporation (Passco) would provide 600,000 tons of wheat to flour mills to bring down prices of flour varieties.

Flour millers’ representatives met Passco MD Maj-Gen Tauqir Ahmed on Tuesday in Lahore to review the price situation in the light of federal government’s Jan 10 decision to immediately release one million tons of wheat to flour millers, Utility Stores and traders to curb rising prices of wheat flour ahead of general elections.

Pakistan Flour Mills Association (Sindh Zone) Chairman Chaudhry Ansar Jawed, who attended the meeting with other representatives of the flour millers’ body, told Dawn that Passco would shortly issue tenders for wheat supply to mills.He said out of 600,000 tons, mills in Sindh would get 150,000 tons of wheat, followed by 200,000 to Punjab mills, 150,000 tons to Khyber Pakhtunkhawa and 100,000 tons to Balochistan flour mills.

Millers would get wheat from Passco at the rate of Rs2,865 per 100kg bag, and after adding Rs150-200 per bag transportation charges, wheat would cost Rs3,100-3,200 per 100kg bag to mills.“I think there will be enough wheat stocks in the country, especially for Karachi and interior Sindh mills till March end when new crop arrives in the country,” he said.

Consumers had already paid high prices for flour and other wheat related items despite huge wheat stocks in the country.Millers in Sindh, while lifting wheat at subsidised rate from the Sindh government at Rs2,800 per 100kgs bag, continued to push up flour prices, saying that they had to lift wheat from open market at higher rates.Both federal and provincial governments kept on watching millers from the sidelines.

Bread, rusk and bun making units also raised prices. Chappati and nan-sellers also raised prices by Re1 per piece followed by Rs3 per piece hike in Taftan and Sheermal rates.Ansar Jawed said that wheat price had climbed to Rs3,500 per 100kg bag 10 days back, but millers kept the rate of flour varieties unchanged. They had last raised the price on Jan 14 by Rs50-75 per 50kg bags of various flour varieties.

He claimed that prices in the open market had come down to Rs3,300 per 100kg bag following reports that Passco would provide wheat to millers.When asked about any cut in prices, he said millers would not reduce prices, but would keep them pegged at old rates.