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Flour
price talks After a three-hour crisis meeting between Consumer Affairs Minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle and Prima bosses Primus Chang and Lin Hsin Hui, the government again rejected Prima's demand that subsidy arrears be paid up immediately or that the company would impose a big price hike. "We asked the company to produce original documents to prove the expenditure incurred for the imports as the payments need to be calculated based on these imports," Minister Fernandopulle told The Sunday Times after the meeting. He said the government was not accepting figures given by the company and wanted correct documents. The wheat monopoly giant Prima is demanding more than Rs. 1,200 million from the government to offset the losses incurred by providing flour at a subsidised price to the local market. A company official said that if the arrears of the subsidy was not given, they would be forced to increase the flour prices as international wheat prices were soaring and running costs were also increasing because of the fuel price hikes. Reacting to a government threat to import flour if Prima took a hardline, the spokesman said it would be difficult to provide the imported flour at the current market prices and there might be a problem about quality also. The cabinet last Wednesday declared flour as an essential item, meaning that any price hike must get prior approval from the Consumer Affairs Authority. Responding to the company's threat, Minister Fernandopulle said the government would be able to import quality flour from India and give it at the current market price. |
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