The federal government on Monday recommended fixing wheat support price at Rs 1,365 per 40 kilogrammes.
The decision was made in a meeting to review wheat prices chaired by Federal Minister for National Food Security Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar.
The meeting was attended by Federal & Provincial Secretaries, representatives of PFMA, PASSCO, wheat exporters and senior officials of the Ministry of NFS&R.
The committee expressed its satisfaction over the current wheat procurement as it was briefed that around 2352 million tonnes of wheat is present in the stocks.
The Sindh province would begin the wheat procurement process from March 15 while the process would begin by April in Punjab province.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government was also allowed to purchase wheat from the border areas of Punjab province.
“The federal and provincial authorities will procure up to 8.5 million tonnes of wheat on time,” the committee said and further recommended to impose ban on supply of wheat to poultry sector.
The committee asked the provinces and PASSCO to timely procure wheat target of 8.25 Million tons including 1.80 MMT by PASSCO, 4.50 MMT by Punjab, 1.40 MMT by Sindh, 0.45 MMT by KP and 0.10 MMT by Balochistan.
The meteorological department officials warned that the wheat harvest could be damaged from the expected rainfall at the end of March 2020. To this the federal minister directed the officials to apprise farmers of the weather updates so that they could take precautionary measures to avoid losses.
The government is taking all out efforts to take action against wheat hoarders, Khusro Bakhtiar said adding that utilization of proper bags would also help avoid waste of wheat during transportation process.
It is pertinent to mention here that Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday ordered strict accountability against all those trying to enforce a manufactured dearth of wheat and sugar in the country.
The Prime Minister tasked his close confidants to release the names of all those found involved in creating the recent artificial shortage of the commodities. PM Imran Khan expressed firm resolve to punish all those involved in creating artificial shortage of wheat and sugar in the country sending the government and people into a frenzy and resulting in major discomfort for everyone.
