Rawalpindi merchants say official price list impracticable

Refuse to sell commodities below wholesale rates

RAWALPINDI: A rift between the retailers in District Price Control Committee (DPCC) and Rawalpindi district administration has emerged as three senior committee members have protested against government actions to sell commodities at controlled rates.

Their argument was that retailers cannot sell at the rates the government was dictating. It was impossible to sell bellow the wholesale price, they said.

Flour Dealers Association President Zahoor Bhatti, Cantonment Merchants Association President Abdul Hameed and City Karyana Merchant Association President Salim Pervez Butt while talking to The Express Tribune said government was forcing retailers to sell below wholesale market rates.

The price control committee had decided in its meeting that a small vendor would earn Rs3 profit on wholesale rate of sugar. They added wholesale price of sugar was Rs66-67 while they were being asked to sell it for Rs61.

Fried or raw, fish in Pindi markets is fishy

Similarly, they added that they were being pressurised to sell a flour bag for Rs.760 which they purchase from wholesalers at Rs850.

Further, they told that red chili’s wholesale price was Rs370 per kilogramme while they were being forced to sell it in Rs360 per kilogramme.

They added that they were unable to sell many other essential items on lower than the purchase rates. “We were ready to sell items on profit of Rs2 per kilogramme only, but not at loss. We have to run our households too, pay bills,” they said and questioned that why didn’t the administration take action against the wholesalers?

They suggested that prices would automatically reduce if there was an action against wholesalers and the administration refrained from publicity stunts by arresting small vendors. They warned the government to change its attitude and said that they would shut down the markets until Eid if any small vendor  was again fined or arrested.

They concluded that inflation was caused by wholesalers who were financiers of influential people. DPCC Rawalpindi was set up as a forum for representatives of the community to debate and fix prices of commodities.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 17^th, 2019.