Flour prices rise amid claims of shortage

RAWALPINDI: Despite claims from the government of ensuring an uninterrupted supply of essential items and permission given for goods-carrying trucks to keep moving despite a near-uniform lockdown across the country in the wake of the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, there have been reports of flour shortage in the Rawalpindi district.

Prices of the essential commodity too have jumped by at least five per cent.

A market survey showed that the price of an 80-kilogramme sack of flour has risen from Rs4,400 last week to Rs4,650 this week with traders citing the shortage of supply as a reason for the hike.

The hike has prompted naanbais to call on the government to restore old prices.

Naanbai Association Chairman Ramzan Mughal, President Malik Mumtaz, and others further called on the government to revise the timings of tandoors (bread ovens) in the city. 

Published in The Express Tribune, April 1^st, 2020.