LAHORE:The Pakistan Flour Mills Association (PFMA) on Friday strongly condemned and protested the Punjab government’s ongoing raids and forced confiscation of portal-declared private wheat stocks.
The PFMA Group Leader Asim Raza Ahmed alongside Punjab Chairman Riaz Ullah Khan while addressing a press conference, emphasised that seizing grain that has already been transparently declared on the official government portal is completely unjustified and showed administrative high-handedness of the provincial government.
Instead of penalizing flour mills whose data is fully declared, the PFMA urged the provincial govt to redirect its enforcement teams toward hoarders, including rice shellers, ginners and other unrelated market actors who are hoarding illegal stocks, urging crackdown by the authorities to impound such stocks.
The association pointed out that while there is no shortage of wheat in the country, prices have artificially jumped from Rs3,500 to Rs4,200 per maund entirely due to illegal hoarding by these unverified, non-industry elements.
They said currently Punjab's flour mills hold a total declared stock of 1.6 million tons of wheat, out of which the industry is already voluntarily providing 100,000 tons to support the government's food security needs.
Furthermore, the PFMA demanded relief from arbitrary tax collections under Sections 36-G and H, arguing that because the ex-mill and retail prices of flour are officially fixed, tax collection should instead be processed under Section 233.
Earlier, the ‘crisis’ stemming from involuntary stock seizures by the Punjab government was the central agenda at an emergency meeting of the PFMA Punjab Branch, held on Friday, where executive committee members, mill owners and elected representatives expressed deep frustration over being paralyzed by the provincial food directorate.
