Three of Pakistan’s four provinces have agreed to a proposed national policy to liberalise the sugar market, while the fourth continues to raise concerns, leading the country to miss an International Monetary Fund (IMF) deadline, Pakistan Today reported.
Finance Secretary Imdad Ullah Bosal told the National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance on Thursday that discussions were continuing with the province that had reservations. While Bosal did not name the province, a committee member identified it as Sindh.
Under the IMF programme, the federal and provincial governments are required to agree on a national framework for sugar-market liberalisation before it is submitted to the federal cabinet for approval.
The proposed policy covers key areas of the sugar sector, including licensing, price controls, import and export permissions and zoning. It also calls for clearly defined timelines for implementing the reforms.
The policy was required to be approved by June, but the deadline has passed without the benchmark being met.
The federal government continues to regulate sugar imports and exports and recently authorised the export of 308,000 metric tonnes of sugar, underscoring the continued role of government controls in the market.
The Finance Ministry said work was continuing towards full liberalisation of the sugar sector and that draft recommendations for a national policy had been shared with the provincial governments.
The missed deadline was disclosed as the Finance Ministry briefed the parliamentary committee on Pakistan’s progress in implementing its IMF programme.
Bosal, who also serves as the government’s chief negotiator with the IMF, said overall implementation of the programme had been strong. He said the progress had helped Pakistan reach staff-level agreements during the previous IMF reviews without significant difficulties.
The finance secretary also briefed the committee on the implementation status of conditions linked to the previous three reviews. However, he did not provide the final status of the conditions for the fourth review, as discussions with the IMF were still underway.
