KARACHI: Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FPCCI) Vice President Nasir Khan commented that the Statutory Regulatory Order (SRO) by the government would increase ghee and cooking oil prices. He strongly condemned the inclusion of edible oils in the S.R.O. 1190(I)/2019 issued by the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR).
As a matter of principle, this SRO should have been restricted to commercial importers instead of including edible oil manufacturers. Therefore, one of the significant disruptions this SRO has caused is that edible oil manufacturers have massively decreased their imports and major imports have been taken over by the commercial importers.
Nasir Khan has noted that this notification/SRO has resulted in a straight 10 percent increase in the cost of importing edible oils in the country. Contrarily, during the same period, India and Bangladesh have reduced the cost of importing edible oils in their countries by 10 percent and 4 percent by providing various relief measures to edible oil manufacturers.
Moreover, Nasir Khan has said that instead of providing billions of rupees to Utility Stores Corporation (USC) to sell subsidised edible oils, the federal government should facilitate edible oil manufacturers. In that manner, they will cut down the edible oil prices; and provide better and more significant relief to consumers in the entire country than the USC could ever achieve. This illogical and illegal inclusion has caused more than a 10 percent increase in edible oil prices due to hoarding by commercial importers.
FPCCI demands immediate withdrawal of edible oil manufacturers from the concerned SRO to help edible oil manufacturers avoid bankruptcy and continue to play their economic growth and employment generation role.
