PHOTO: PUBLICITY
LAHORE: Prices of several essential commodities like seasonal fruit and vegetable, ghee and cooking oil, have spiraled ahead of the holy month of Ramazan, The Express Tribune learnt on Sunday.
Commodity prices comparison and market survey indicate that due to ineffective and inefficient price control system prices of potato, radish, green pea, ginger, lemon, capsicum, cucumber and onion witnessed an increase ranging between four and 132 per cent during the recent weeks.
Lahore Market Committee's official price lists show that green pea was available for Rs26-28 a kilogramme in Sunday bazaar during the first week of April. Following an increase of over 132%, this is traded for Rs63-65 per kilogramme in weekly makeshift markets in the city.
Similarly, radish price also witnessed an increase of 50 per cent. Last month, it was available for Rs8-10 a kilogramme but yesterday it was sold for Rs14-15 per kilogramme.
Chinese and Thai ginger varieties also showed an increase of 36 and 45 per cent respectively. Both commodities were traded at Rs136-140 and Rs174-180 per kilogramme in the weekly Sunday bazaars.
Price of local lemon also showed an increase of 28 per cent during the recent weeks as its price touched Rs174-180 per kilogramme in Sunday bazaars while open market lemon prices have soared to Rs280 per kilogramme.
Speaking to The Express Tribune, various consumers complained that the government has failed to rein in prices of essential commodities ahead of Ramazan.
A citizen, Syed Mohsin, said prices of all commodities from infant milk to cooking oil, fruit and vegetables have been jacked up already. There is no writ of the government and no mechanism of price control available in the provincial metropolis.
A shopper, Muhammad Rafi, said the government always claims that it provides a subsidy to keep the prices of commodities low during Ramazan, but in reality, prices of all commodities increase when Ramazan is around the corner. He pointed out that demand of fresh vegetables, fruit and cooking oil swell during the month of fasting and prices of all these commodities have been increased due to the negligence of the government. Similar remarks were expressed by several other consumers.
A representative of Islamabad Chamber of Small Traders, Shahid Rasheed Butt, highlighted that oil and ghee mills have also increased their product prices by Rs15 per kilogramme on the pretext of rupee devaluation and increase in customs duty rate.
Butt said that the price of ghee and cooking oil shot up by almost Rs10 per kilogramme because of recent currency depreciation while the government didn't take any remedial step; rather it increased customs duty on imports of edible oil which has further increased its price by Rs5 per kilogramme in local markets.
He pointed out that customs duty on import of soybean oil has been revised upward by 32.6 per cent which has increased the price of cooking oil by Rs5 per kilogramme while the price of a 16-kilogramme canister of ghee has been increased by Rs80 in the local market. The move is set to burden poor masses as manufacturers have already transferred duty change impact to the masses.
The government used to get Rs9,050 as duty on import of soybean oil which will now jump to Rs12,000 while import of oilseed attracts taxes and duties to the tune of Rs7,100 only which is against the principle of a level playing field and it also discourages farmers, said Butt. He demanded the government immediately reverse duty structure to ease edible oil and ghee prices before Ramazan starts.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 7th, 2018.
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