Gilgit Baltistan (GB) government has purchased 150,000 sacks of wheat from the Punjab at market price after the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) turned down GB’s request to increase its quota of subsidized wheat.
According to officials, the GB government for the first time has purchased 15,000 metric ton wheat from Punjab to meet the shortage of the largely consumed kitchen item at market prices. However, interestingly, the same wheat purchased at higher prices, would be provided to the people at existing subsidized rates.
Normally the region is provided largely subsidized wheat by the center through the Ministry of Finance and in coordination with the Ministry of Food Security and Research as well as Pakistan Agricultural Storage & Services Corporation Ltd (PASSCO) for which at least Rs8 billion is allocated in the federal budget.
However, after supply of imported wheat to the region by PASSCO, the shortage was created as the existing subsidy was not enough to cater the costlier wheat creating a shortage of around 150,000 sacks.
Following the shortage of the commodity, the regional government had requested the concerned ministries to increase the wheat quota. But ECC had turned down the request saying that the government cannot increase the subsidy after talks and commitment with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Subsequently the ruling party in GB was left with no option but to purchase the additional wheat at market prices with its own regular budget as the wheat subsidy issue is considered a major political issue in the region.
GB Chief Minister Muhammad Khalid Khurshid visited Lahore and requested Chief Minister Usman Buzdar to provide 1.5 lakh sacks of wheat for GB. Talking to local media.
The Punjab government has agreed to provide 1.5 lakh sacks of wheat, which will help to meet the shortage of wheat in GB. It may be noted that the monthly quota of 118,000 sacks of wheat was fixed for GB, but the federal government was providing 98,000 sacks monthly by deducting 20,000 sacks against which protests were taking place in different areas of the region.
Earlier the ECC had rejected the increase in wheat quota of GB due to financial constraints, asking the regional government to increase the price of the commodity by 70 per cent to compensate for the additional purchase of wheat to secure the extra release.
A summary was submitted to ECC for the grant of additional subsidized wheat to GB. However, the Ministry of Finance set the condition of increasing prices for an increase in the quota as the additional wheat on a subsidized rate would burden the central government’s budget.
The Finance Division can only support an increase in wheat quota from 150,000 to 160,000 MT per annum provided the sale price is enhanced up to 70 per cent of the support price in phases.
