Measures taken to achieve wheat procurement target in Pakistan
Pakistan Times Business & Commerce Desk

ISLAMABAD: The government has devised a strategy for procuring wheat to stabilize its price.

According to official sources adequate steps have been taken to achieve procurement target of 5.2 million tonnes set by the government for the year.

The restrictions on movement of wheat have already been lifted and there is no bar on the provincial movement of the commodity.

The provincial governments have been directed to double procurement centers as per requirement of growers.

Pakistan Agriculture Storage and Supply Corporation (PASSCO) has also been directed to procure surplus wheat from farmers facilitating them to get rational price of the produce.

A number of appropriate measures have been introduced to improve procurement and release procedure with a focus on greater role for the private sector and market forces.

The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) has directed State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to provide special credit facility to the private sector for procurement of wheat.

The SBP has eased conditions for credit to wheat traders by significantly lowering its security margin requirements to enhance access of private sector to credit facility.

It has also been decided to allow banks to freely finance the procurement of wheat by flour mills from any source in Pakistan and without any restriction on the basis of annual capacity of each flour mill.

Besides, necessary arrangements have also been made for provision of gunny bags on uniform rates to farmers for packing of wheat.●