The Sindh food department has cancelled the release of 32,000 tonnes of old wheat, from the years 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017, to flour mills in different regions of the province.
Old stocks were to be released for Karachi, Larkana, Shikarpur, Qambar-Shahdadkot, Jacobabad and Kashmore regions where flour mills were located. Of the 32,000 tonnes, 16,000 tonnes were to be released for Karachi alone.
According to a report by Dawn, the provincial food secretary has said that old stocks could have been disposed of through interested buyers other than mills as they are aplenty in the market. But the release policy 2020-21 does not permit this, resulting in the withdrawal allocation of old stock.
The report also quoted the official saying that the floor mills mafia, along with a few corrupt elements in the government, wants to get the old stock at minimal prices through auctions, adding that the stock was not weighable due to being in piles rather than bags, thus making misappropriation easily possible.
The food department would now auction the wheat at Rs3,700 per 100kg, which was issue price for new crop.
It may be noted here that the Singh witnessed a surge in wheat prices when it ran out of wheat on a number of occasions during the last couple of years due to a shortage of stock.
