KARACHI: Customers were forced to buy sugar from the market at high prices due to the unavailability of the commodity at the Utility Stores Corporation (USC) outlets.
Sources said the USC store in different cities of the country had a shortage of sugar shortage for the last 15 days.
The customers said that it was the government’s responsibility to either control the prices in the open market or ensure the availability of all items at all stores across the country.
They said that per kilogram sugar in the open market was around Rs93 while at the utility stores it is much cheaper. It has to cancel tenders for the purchase of 35,000 metric tonnes of sugar under the PM’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 Rs88 per kg, which cost the USC Rs94 per kg after including the transportation and allied expenditures.
