KARACHI: There is no shortage of wheat flour anywhere in Sindh as the essential food product is available in sufficient quantity everywhere in the province at the lowest retail price of Rs 55 per kilogram.

This was jointly stated by Sindh Information and Labour Minister, Saeed Ghani, and Sindh Excise and Taxation Minister and Food Minister, Mukesh Kumar Chawla, while talking to media persons here at the Sindh Assembly building on Thursday.

Sindh Food Minister told media persons on the occasion that Sindh government’s annual wheat procurement had never exceeded 1.2 million tonnes in the last 10 years so it was completely baseless on the part of the federal cabinet to assume that 1.6 million tonnes of wheat had been stolen from the province.

He said the centre instead of levelling baseless allegations against the Sindh government should better order a probe into the statement of a federal minister on the floor of the parliament that he (the federal minister) didn’t know as to where had gone 6.6 million tonnes from Punjab.

He said the Sindh government in the last year had procured 1.2 million tonnes of wheat as every month 2,50,000 tonnes of wheat was being released to the flour mills at subsidised rates since October 15 this year. He said that the ex-mill price of wheat flour is Rs 54 per kg while the retail price in Sindh is Rs 55 per kg.

The Sindh Information Minister said the provincial government would be able to play an effective role check the issue of inflation if it was given the power to regulate prices of fuel and other such important commodities.

He expressed the apprehension that the per litre price of petrol would exceed Rs 170 in the coming two to three weeks in view of the announcement by the Federal Finance Adviser that Rs four per litre levy would now be added to the petrol price at the behest of the IMF. He said the incumbent incompetent Prime Minister was responsible for the persisting petrol crisis in the country as the PM aimed to extend undue benefits to his cronies.