CCP hand over Heavy fines to 17 Sugar Mills over price hike

August 15, 2021

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The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) has released a list of sugar Mills that have been handed over fines following a decision by the Commission over collective price fixation by Sugar Mills.

According to a CCP order issued on Friday, the fines imposed on some of the Major sugar factories included following:

No.	Company	Fine
1	JDW Sugar Mill Unit-1	Rs. 50 Million
2	JDW Sugar Mill Unit-2	Rs. 50 Million
3	JDW Sugar Mill Unit-3	Rs. 50 Million
4	Layyah Sugar Mill	Rs. 50 Million
5	Safina Sugar Mill	Rs. 50 Million
6	Hunza Sugar Mill Unit-1	Rs. 50 Million
7	Hunza Sugar Mill Unit-2	Rs. 50 Million
8	Al-Moiz Sugar Mill Unit-1	Rs. 50 Million
9	Al-Moiz Sugar Mill Unit-2	Rs. 50 Million
10	Chashma Sugar Mill Unit-1	Rs. 50 Million
11	Chashma Sugar Mill Unit-2	Rs. 50 Million
12	Chanaar Sugar Mills	Rs. 50 Million
13	Fatima Sugar Mills	Rs. 50 Million
14	Indus Sugar Mills	Rs. 50 Million
15	TandlianWala Sugar Mills	Rs. 50 Million
16	Al-Abbas Sugar Mills	Rs. 50 Million
17	Mirpurkhas Sugar Mills	Rs. 50 Million
18	Sanghar Sugar Mill	Rs. 50 Million
19	Shahmurad Sugar Mill	Rs. 50 Million
20	Al-Noor Sugar Mill	Rs. 50 Million
21	JK Sugar Mill	Rs. 50 Million
22	Faran Sugar Mill	Rs. 50 Million
23	Mirpurkhas Sugar Mills	Rs. 50 Million

24	Pakistan Sugar Mills Association	Rs. 300 Million

The CCP also released a list of sugar factories for which annual sales data are not available to the Commission.

An order issued by the CCP on Friday imposed a cumulative fine of 300 million rupees on the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (PSMA), comprising of 75 million rupees each for the four violations committed by the association.

There are additional penalties on Sugar Mills in addition to above mentioned fixed Penalties.

First additional penalty is five percent of the respective 2019 annual turnover of each of the member companies, situated in Sindh, KPK and Punjab for deciding the exports quantum, invariably controlling the domestic supply of sugar in the relevant market for the period from 2012 to 2020.

Second additional penalty is seven percent of the respective 2019 annual turnover of each of the member companies located in Punjab, for handing over private inventory information with the PSMA for the period 2012 to 2020.

On the other hand, the Pakistan Student Mills Association issued a press release stating that the CCP’s decision was not final because the two members did not agreed with the fines and that they voted in favor of the sugar factories and the PSMA.

The PSMA states that the head of a CCP is not entitled to cast a second vote in a proceeding under competition law. Two CCP members have not ordered a fine to be imposed on the PSMA or its sugar factories.

The PSMA added that the decision put forward by the CCP does not contain a majority or unanimous votes. Hence the underlying allegations of anti-competitive behavior against PSMA and its sugar factories or fines are baseless and biased.