950818

Crackdown on sugar hoarders

FIA seals 8 sugar

mills, godowns: bags

worth Rs 1bn seized

ALMAS A. KHAN

LAHORE: The crackdown on sugar hoarders by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on continued for the second day on Friday when eight sugar mills and godowns were sealed.

Following the instructions of the Interior Minister, Major General (Retd) Naseerullah Babar, the FIA has sealed eight sugar mills and godowns and seized sugar bags worth Rs one billion during raids.

The FIA, after lodging cases against the owners of these sugar mills and godowns, has started invstigations against them.

These mills and godowns sealed include the godowns of Zaheer and Company (40,000 bags recovered), Sadiq Vegetable Ghee Mills Lahore (30,000 bags), Baba Frid Sugar Mills, Okara (207,000 bags), Hussian Sugar Mills, Jaranwala (74,000 bags), Padayanwali Sugar Mills, Jhang (4,50,000 bags), Fatima Sugar Mills, Muzaffargarh (85,000 bags), Crescent Sugar Mills, Faisalabad (84,000 bags), Sheikho Sugar Mills, Muzaffargarh (2,42,000 bags).

According to FIA officials, the owners of the sugar mills and some traders dealing in sugar wanted to create an artificial shortage of the commodity in order to increase of price. The FIA officials, alleged that the mill owners and traders were also involved in smuggling sugar to India, Iran and Afghanistan.

Moreover, the sugar mills owners in connivance with Central Excise officials, have been accused of shifting the bags of sugar to their respective godowns without paying excise duty which cost tens of million of rupees in losses to the national exchequer.

The operation has been launched to control the increasing prices of sugar in the local market and to stop smuggling of sugar to neighbouring countries. The FIA has warned the sugar hoarders to ensure smooth supply of the commodity and also appealed, to the public to inform the FIA about sugar hoarders.