The government has announced that a reward of Rs. 5million for any person who can provide “credible” and “actionable” information about the 343,000 metric tons of urea that has anonymously disappeared from the market, reported a national daily.

The announcement has been made with the directions from directly the Prime Minister, Imran Khan. Upon questioning, the urea dealers had told the government that all stocks had been sold, however, the government believes that hoarders had caused the sudden disappearance of urea from the market.

The Minister for Industries and Production, Makhdum Khusro Bakhtyar, announced the reward on the directions of the Prime Minister, in which a reward of Rs. 5 million was announced in exchange for credible information.

The government is also attempting to gather data from the real-time portal regarding the sale of urea. Punjab government in the previous week had shared data of 149 hoarders who had hoarded stock of fertilizers, reported the Express Tribune.

Following the recent crackdowns on different hoarders, the prices of urea had fallen to Rs. 1,800 from Rs. 1,900 per bag compared to the earlier prices of Rs. 3,000 per bag.

In the meeting, it was said that during the month of December, the manufacturing companies would utilize the maximum capacity of their units to produce fertilizers. The petroleum division also assured companies that they would be provided with an uninterrupted gas supply even during the winter season.

Khusro Bakhtyar further informed the meeting that due to the focus of the government on the agriculture sector, the production of Urea stood at an all-time high of 3.4 million tons.

Source: Pro Pakistani