THE Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet on Monday turned down the proposed minimum support price of wheat by the Ministry of National Food Security & Research at Rs1,745 per 40kg and approved it at Rs1,600 per 40 kg for wheat crop 2020-21. The ECC preferred keeping the minimum support price close to Punjab’s proposal as the most populated province of the country had proposed wheat support price at Rs1,650 per 40kg. However, the high-powered committee constituted by the ECC decided to keep the support price of wheat at Rs1,600 per 40kg.
Wheat is the staple food of the country and any upward adjustment in its support price has two major dimensions. It serves as an incentive to farmers to grow more wheat and help the country become surplus in basic food item but at the same time, the increase in support price is directly transferred to the consumers besides inflationary impact on other items and services. It is because of this that the governments minutely consider all factors and decide about the support price accordingly. This is the second increase during the two-year tenure of the present Government and normally this should have been avoided in view of its adverse impact on the layman who is already groaning under sky-rocketing price-hike. However, this time round, there was demand for even higher increase as the market price of 40 kilogram wheat at the moment was about Rs. 2,250/- and it is believed that an increase in support price would not have implications for the consumer who is already paying much more than the fixed price. It is also a fact that the country is facing a shortage of the commodity and is importing it at the expense of precious foreign exchange, which is shameful considering Pakistan was an agrarian country. Despite all this, the most appropriate option would have been to bring down the cost of production than to raise the support price.
