According to a notification issued here on Saturday, PFD has 4.795 million metric tons of wheat in its godowns and in response to need/demand arising for commencing official wheat release to flour mills, it is starting the supply of wheat to functional/approved flour mills based on approved roller bodies.
The flour mills having official wheat will be bound to sell flour at the maximum ex-mill price of Rs 786 per 20 kilograms and maximum retail price of Rs 808 per 20 kilograms bag.
The notification entitles flour mills getting wheat from the Food department to grind their private wheat stocks. The Rawalpindi, Gujranwala and Lahore Divisions except Nankana Sahib District will be treated as deficit Divisions and wheat will be issued to the flour mills/chakkies as per body quota to be notified by the Director Food Punjab, from time to time. Director Food will also fix priority of wheat releases keeping in view the stock position of the Districts, the notification added.
The requirement of the flour mills of deficit Divisions over and above the prescribed number of bags per body will be met from surplus divisions. However, the surplus stocks of Sargodha Division and Okara District will be kept reserved for the flour mills of Rawalpindi and Lahore Division respectively, the food department further mentioned in the wheat release notification.
The notification further said that wheat to the defaulter mills (which have not deposited their outstanding dues) will not be issued from government stocks. It should be ensured that the wheat quota issued from the government godowns must be ground by the flour mills and justified by the electricity bills. Execution of agreement with every flour mill for the observance of the process may be ensured, besides abiding by all the departmental instructions and codal formalities regarding advance deposit and issuance of wheat, the notification concludes.