Despite the ban, the export of wheat and flour Issue Still Unsolved

ISLAMABAD: Despite the July ban, flour and wheat exports have remained a norm until the end of October, and the relevant ministries are reluctant to provide any explanation.

The Cabinet Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) in June last year indicated that the country's supply of flour and wheat would decline, but neither did it stop exporting the problem. Other flour products, such as semolina, contain flour.

From late July to the first week of November, the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Commerce issued several notices stopping the export of these goods, but to some extent, they were reported in statistics compiled by the Pakistan Institute of Statistics (PBS). has been.

Due to the rising prices of flour and wheat in local markets, the ECC decided to ban the export of wheat and flour on July 17, 2019, which took 13 more days to issue the notification and July 30. Notification issued on.

A week later, the Food Security Ministry issued a statement stating that other commodities such as fine flour, fine flour and semolina were exempt from the ban, with the exception that the ban eased the export of these goods. ۔

According to PBS data, 2,606 tonnes of wheat was exported in September 2019 while 1,887 tonnes of wheat was exported in October but no wheat was exported in August.

On the other hand, 89,237 tonnes of wheat was exported from Pakistan in June and July, but the data on the PBS website did not disclose the export of flour and wheat separately.

 According to official documents, 53,393 tonnes of flour were exported in July, 1,179 tonnes in August, 1,36 tonnes in September and 23,991 tonnes in October.

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Department of Customs has launched an investigation into how these items were recovered despite the ban.

Official sources told Dawn that the Ministry of Commerce had raised the matter with the FBR, but the company was reluctant to provide export data to the ministry, which involved some 'specialized companies'.

Sources said that the department is not ready to give details of wheat exporting companies despite customs restrictions, but this information may have been made available to the Prime Minister's Secretariat.

From July to October, these exports were made to Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan.

The Customs Department has other wheat export data such as fine flour, flour and semolina, but they are not provided to anyone, while PBS data does not list the exports of these items separately.

On the other hand, according to the data of the Department of Conservation Plants (DPP), from August 2019 to October 19, 2019, when the Ministry of Defense allowed export, 5,928 tonnes of flour was exported and swelled between September and October. Exports recorded 92 tonnes.

According to DPP data, Pakistan also exported wheat stalks, flours and needles.