Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum (PBIF) president and former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussain on Wednesday asked the government to increase regulatory duty on import of wheat from 40 per cent to 60 per cent to discourage imports. The country has already surplus stock and all efforts to deal with it have backfired therefore wheat imports at this stage is against the national interest, he said.
Hussain said that the federal and provincial governments have almost 10 million tonnes of surplus wheat which is rotting in godowns.
Earlier this year, the government increased regulatory duty on imports from 25 per cent to 40 per cent but it failed to deter importers which must be reviewed immediately, he demanded.
The surplus stock could not be sold in the international market due to low prices despite frequent extension of dates and upward revision in the export rebate which hit almost 90 dollars per tonne, he noted.
The business leader said the federal government allowed Punjab and Sindh to sell twelve hundred thousand tonnes of wheat but both the provinces could manage to sell only 416,650 tonnes, almost one third of the allowed wheat export.
He said the high support price has increased production of wheat but its prices remained the same since three years, which, if reduced, will increase consumption and it will reduce pressure on stocks and provide relief to masses while easing pressure on the central bank.
