severe shortage of sugar at Utility Stores irks customers

 Utility Stores Corporation failed to procure the required quantity of sugar under PM relief fund

The Utility Stores Corporation (USC) is facing a severe shortage of sugar currently, according to sources. The shortage of sugar is irking the customers who wants to buy sugar at subsidised rates from government owned Utility Stores. The prices of sugar rises in recent months in the open market. The minimum price of sugar is Rs 95 per kg. In some cities it is selling at Rs 110 per kg. In the present circumstances, low income families are queing up to buy relatively cheap sugar from Utility Stores.   

USC  has to cancel tenders for the purchase of 35,000 metric tonnes of sugar under the Prime Minister’s relief package, after the mills refused to sell the commodity to the corporation.

Sources said that none of the sugar mills in the country participated in the bidding process, forcing it to cancel the tenders. The sugar mills cited the exhaustion of their stocks as the main reason for not participating in the USC bidding process.

The USC, in its previous tenders, managed to procure only 4,000 metric tonnes of sugar against the procurement call of 35,000 metric tonnes. That stock was purchased for Rs 88 per kg, which cost the USC Rs94 per kg after including the transportation and allied expenditures.

The government needs to intervene in this situation to ensure the timely supply of sugar at Utility Stores. The people are forced to buy expensive sugar from open market. 

                                                      Rukhsana Manzoor Deputy Editor