The flour price hike in Punjab appears to be having the feared domino effect in Sindh, with the price of a kilogramme of wheat flour at Hyderabad's flour mills jumping by around Rs10. While the government had fixed the rate at Rs52 per kg, it is now being sold at Rs62 per kg.
In defence of the raised prices, flour millers have claimed that they are buying wheat from the open market at around 30 per cent more than what it had cost four months ago.
"The price of a 100kg wheat bag has shot up by Rs1,700 to Rs5,000," claimed Haji Muhammad Memon, the vice president of the Atta Chakki Owners Welfare Association, Hyderabad, at a press conference. According to him, a similar bag cost them Rs3,300 four months ago.
"We can only keep our prices the same if we get wheat at a price that is not inflated in the market," he said, contending that the increase was inevitable if the mills received expensive wheat.
The association further demanded that the Sindh government release wheat from its own warehouses if it wanted to implement the official rates of flour, adding that this release should begin in August.
Deploring raids at the chakkis by district administration officials, Memon warned that all 200 mills in Hyderabad would close in protest if these raids were not halted.
The association also called for the lifting of the ban on inter-district movement of wheat, while accepting the ban on moving the crop between provinces.
Meanwhile, a district administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told The Express Tribune that the wheat prices in Hyderabad had been raised artificially. "The millers are taking advantage of the situation. We have checked and there is no shortage of wheat in the open market," he claimed.
The Hyderabad district administration has warned chakkis of action if they charge customers higher prices than the official rate. Meanwhile, revenue officials - already occupied with regulating milk prices as well as the pandemic - are also raiding the flour mills to impose fines for price-gouging.
According to the Sindh Chamber of Agriculture's Nabi Bux Sathio, the province produced a bumper crop of wheat this year.
"The wheat mafia bought the crop from farmers at a lower rate and now they are selling the same wheat to the flour mills at a much higher rate," he explained, urging the Sindh government to take action against the wheat mafia.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 25th, 2020.
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