ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The Federal Minister for Industries and Production Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar held a fertilizer review meeting with the fertilizer industry on Friday morning.
The meeting discussed the current position of the supply chain of urea in the Country.
The Chief Secretary Punjab apprised the Chair on action taken by Punjab Government against hoarders since last two weeks, whereby inspection teams booked 159 arrests of those involved in hoarding/black marketing of urea and 2.76 lac tonne urea had confiscated during raids as well as district administration auctioned the urea bags at notified rates i.e Rs 1,768/bag.
The fertilizer industry also shared the latest position of supply of urea in the Country through the real-time portal which showed inter-provincial distribution anomalies of urea.
According to available data, Punjab lagged by 4% in urea supplies whereas 52% urea supplies flew to Sindh as compared to last year in the period from September to November; showing the excess amount of urea in the latter province.
Speaking to the meeting, the minister said that the Sindh government had become a safe haven for hoarders and profiteers. He appreciated the efforts of the Punjab government against hoarders and; said that he expected the same measures taken by the Sindh government to provide urea at affordable prices for increased wheat production throughout the Country in the interest of public welfare at large.
Furthermore, the minister stated that owning to the negligence of the Sindh government towards controlling prices of essential commodities in the province especially Karachi and Hyderabad, the country had witnessed an increased inflation rate over the past years which had put a lot of pressure on our economy in terms of high-interest rate which need to done to control inflation.
In concluding remarks, he said that the incumbent government was taking all possible measures for a robust supply of urea to farmers at affordable prices for wheat sowing.
Khusro Bakhtiar also assured the constant monitoring of the supply of urea from manufacturing units and movement of fertilizers at selling points across the Country. He lauded the action of fertilizer manufacturers to blacklist the hoarders to smoothen the supply chain and market correction of urea countrywide.
