KARACHI: The retail price of sugar has surged to Rs170 per kg in Karachi, Lahore, and Islamabad due to a rise in wholesale rates amid strong demand in Ramazan.Retailers in Karachi feared that the price may hit Rs200 if a bullish trend persists in the wholesale market.

However, wholesalers blame millers for increasingthe rates.

In a week, the wholesale rate swelled by Rs15 to Rs155 per kg in Karachi.

Earlier in February, the average national price of sugar was Rs145-160 per kg.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Sugar Mills Association (Punjab Zone) spokesman has claimed that there has been no abnormal increase in the ex-mill price as it fluctuates due to demand and supply factors.

Usually, the sugar industry is blamed for the price hike. While the ground realityisthatassoonasthe sugarsacks leave the mill premises, it will become the game of the wholesalers and retail-ers, the spokesman explained.

He stated that speculators, profiteers, and hoarders are manipulating market prices by spreading rumours and shifting all the blame to the sugar industry. `This satta mafia has different social media groups that speculate on prices,` he alleged.

He said wholesalers and retailers had set different profit margins based on the area-to-area and a market-tomarket basis.

He claimed that the sweetener was selling Rs130 per kg in Ramazan bazaars.

In a statement, a PSMA spokesman said that the price actual beneficiaries of artificial price hikes were speculators, hoarders and profiteers who spread rumours to influence the interplay of market forces to gain undue profits on sugar available to them.

`Mills are providing sugar at Rs130 in all districts and tehsils through Ramazan package discount stalls in collaboration with federal/provincial governments and district administrations,` the association said.