Tiger Force told to keep an eye on prices of food commodities

Prime Minister Imran Khan directed the Tiger Force on Sunday to regularly keep a check on prices of food commodities in their localities and post them on the Tiger Force portal.

The premier will be discussing the issue with the force at a meeting to be convened on October 17, at the Jinnah Convention Centre.

“From now till then I want our Tiger Force to regularly check prices of daal, atta, sugar, ghee in their localities & post on Tiger Force portal,” PM Imran said in a tweet.

The premier earlier said that the federal government would use all resources at the disposal of the state to bring down food prices from the coming week.

In a tweet, the premier said the government is "already examining causes of the price hikes", and will determine whether the increase in food prices in the country is due to a genuine supply shortage, hoarding by mafias, smuggling or due to an increase in international prices.

Prices faced by the lowest income quintile in the first quarter of FY21 have registered an increase. The Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI) has jumped from 2.5% in FY19 to 12.5%

The premier assured the people that the strategy will be in place from "next week" to bring down prices.

The federal government earlier constituted a National Price Monitoring Committee led by the finance ministry. The last meeting held on the directions of the PM’s office discussed “the abnormal variation in the prices of perishable items such as tomatoes, potatoes, onions as well as other essential items like wheat, sugar and chicken”.

Both the main opposition parties, the PPP and the PML-N, have also criticised the government for the price hike.

The Asian Development Bank, in a recent report, said Pakistan’s economy may grow at a pace of 2% in the current fiscal year - the fifth-lowest pace among South Asian countries, and Islamabad also remains at the rock bottom of global Wellness Index

Rising food prices had pushed inflation to 10.7% in the last fiscal year, which is now projected to slow to 7.5% this fiscal year.