Utility Stores Corporation running short of sugar stock in KP since February 1<\/p>\n
JAVED KHAN<\/p>\n
PESHAWAR: An acute shortage of the much sought-after commodity sugar has surfaced in the government operated utility stores outlets in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) leaving the people with no option to buy the commodity at higher rates from open market.<\/p>\n
A senior employee of a utility store told this scribe that the Utility Stores Corporation does not have an adequate stock of sugar in the province since February 1.<\/p>\n
He said that the corporation has informed the outlets of the province that sugar availability will take at least one more month.<\/p>\n
The government yet to issue tender and complete various legal formalities to make available the stock of sugar on a subside rate in the stores he added.<\/p>\n
He said that sugar will be available in the provincial utilities store till the month of Ramadan.<\/p>\n
The price of the sugar at open market surged to Rs110 a kilogram while the subsidies price of the same commodity at the utility store was fixed at Rs65 a kilogram.<\/p>\n
However, the non-availability of the stock, no mechanism of supply chain, and lackluster response of the government forced the people to buy expensive sugar.<\/p>\n
Consumers of the utility stores are paying around Rs50 extra on per kilogram sugar in KP.<\/p>\n
It has been reported that utility stores last week struck a deal to buy 20,000 tons of sugar from sugar mills. Utility stores have so far issued eight sugar tenders in six months.<\/p>\n
The sources said that 5 separate tenders of 35 thousand metric tons of sugar have been issued, 3 separate tenders of 40 thousand metric tons have been issued, utility stores have so far canceled 5 tenders of sugar in 6 months.<\/p>\n
One tender less than 4,000 metric tons of sugar was procured, the government provided 51,000 metric tons of imported sugar to the utility stores, another 50,000 tons of imported sugar is being processed to the utility stores.<\/p>\n
Retailers at the open market told this scribe that at present they were buying sugar from the wholesale market on daily requirement as the situation of the basic commodity is uncertain.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe purchase sugar at Rs100 per kg and sell it to customers at Rs110 per kg,\u201d said a local retailer.<\/p>\n
He also revealed that sugar demand and price would rise in the month of Ramadan owing to its extra usage in preparing sweet dishes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Utility Stores Corporation running short of sugar stock in KP since February 1 JAVED KHAN PESHAWAR: An acute shortage of the much sought-after commodity sugar has surfaced in the government operated utility stores outlets in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) leaving the people with no option to buy the commodity at higher rates from open market. A […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":177138,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-177137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-top-news"],"yoast_head":"\n