Procurement policy faces reality

Two years ago, the Punjab government decided, in principle, to discontinue direct wheat procurement from farmers. This decision was driven by the mounting financial burden of outstanding debt — incurred for wheat procurement but compounded by delayed repayments — which had surged to Rs680 billion by June 2023. Consequently, annual interest payments alone reached approximately Rs110bn in 2023–24. This raised serious concerns about the sustainability of the government-led procurement system. Ai...

By [email protected] (Khalid Saeed WattooDr Waqar Ahmad)