THE import of sugar from Pakistan took a curious turn early last month when Indian customs seized at least 10 wagonloads of poppy seed from a sugar train that arrived from Lahore. The incident occurred at a time when the Pakistani defence secretary and his team were in Delhi for talks, and there was pressure on the Railway and customs officials at Amritsar to avoid delays in unloading rakes.
The wagons were seized and confined to the goods shed, which, combined with the intensified custom searches, caused further bottlenecks in unloading. Pakistan railway sources confirmed that the wagonloads of sugar destined for India have crowded out all other items normally exported to India on a regular basis. Now, due to the delay in unloading, many loaded sugar rakes were stranded at different stations, causing losses estimated at tens of millions of rupees, said sources in the commerce ministry.
Indian officials, however, wonder how such a massive amount of poppy could come through Pakistani customs without official collusion, and hint at an ISI plot.
A commerce ministry official claimed that over a thousand loaded wagons carrying 80,000 tonnes of sugar, for which orders were in hand, were stuck at the Indo-Pak border. In fact, say officials, the Pakistani sugar industry actually faces a working capital crunch, since $20 million worth of stock is still stuck with Pakistan Railways. Add to this the fact that the Central Board of Revenue is yet to pay the promised export rebate of over Rs 100 million. As a consequence, the farmers have been hit the hardest because their payments have been stuck with influential mill owners.
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