SOHAIL SARFRAZ

ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said Tuesday that the effective monitoring of sugar mills during current season resulted in enhanced sales tax collection of Rs24 billion in first two months of 2025 against Rs15 billion in the same period of 2024, reflecting an extraordinary increase of 54 per cent.

In a televised speech flanked by Federal Minister for Information Attaullah Tarar, the finance minister highlighted sugar reserves are sufficient to meet domestic needs, dismissing concerns about smuggling of the commodity to Afghanistan. Due to stringent measures against cross-border smuggling, sugar has been legally exported instead of being smuggled to Afghanistan, he said.

Under the reform agenda, the finance minister stated that the FBR has introduced an advanced monitoring system to track sugar mills and transportation of the commodity. Under this system, the government has sealed six sugar mills for violations. “This is the first time that sugar has not been smuggled to Afghanistan, it has been exported,” he said, adding that the country needs “every single dollar” to balance its current account.

Aurangzeb informed that on the directives of the prime minister, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has initiated an improved production monitoring system in the sugar sector. Five oversight systems including track and trace, automated control hoppers, video recording and digital eye controlling have been placed at sugar mills. Resultantly, the sugar is being sold to genuine distributors in the supply chain rather than to hoarders.

Along with these technological measures, he stated that FBR personnel had been deployed at sugar mills across the country to ensure accountability and reduce malpractices. The presence of officers from the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and the Intelligence Bureau, along with other law enforcement agencies, further strengthened the system’s enforcement.

He said that since the implementation of the monitoring system, 10 shot hoppers and six sugar mills have been sealed. “Penalties to the tune of Rs125 million have been imposed to date,” he added.

The government is confident that the sugar requirement of the country in the current season “is in a good place, and we should be able to manage it as we go forward”, he stated. “The record-breaking remittance inflow for February 2025 reached an impressive $3.1 billion. We estimate an all-time high remittance inflow of $36 billion by the end of the fiscal year,” the finance minister said.