Retailers refuse to sell daily use items at official rates

Grocery retailers in Rawalpindi have refused to sell daily-use items including rice, pulses and oil at official rates after negotiations with the local administration remained failed.

The grocery retailers said that they receive essential items from wholesalers at higher prices and could not sell them at the official rates.

The Karyana Merchant Association claimed that the wholesale dealers of different commodities including lentils, flour and ghee have hiked prices.

Traders Saleem Pervez Butt, Mian Afaq Ansari, Malik Abdul Hameed and Rao Hashim told The Express Tribune that prices of pulses, white gram, red beans etc have risen to Rs100 per kg after the exponential increase in the price of petroleum products and the depreciation of the rupee against the dollar.

They said that there is a huge difference between the rates issued by the deputy commissioner’s office and in the wholesale market.

“Grocery shopkeepers cannot afford to purchase white gram at Rs300 per kg in the wholesale market and sell them at Rs190 per kg.”

“We have asked the deputy commissioner that whatever price is fixed by the administration, they provide us items on subsidised rate than the official price, only then we are ready to sell the commodities at the official rates,” they said.

“The district administration says that the wholesale markets are not under their control but they force grocery sellers to sell items at cheaper rates. That is why we have convened a meeting of grocery shops and small traders from all over Punjab and have decided not to sell the items at the official rates and have stopped selling all these items for an indefinite period.”

The traders said that these items were also expensive at utility store outlets but “we are being forced to sell these items at cheaper rates as compared to utility stores, which is next to impossible”.

They further said that their boycott will continue until the deputy commissioner issues a new price list according to the wholesale market rate.

The grocery seller had earlier stopped selling pulses but after the administration promised to fix new rates, they resumed selling pulses.

The traders have also announced to stage a sit-in and protest in front of the chief minister's house in Lahore. They said that the government, deputy commissioners and price magistrates have no control over the open market. They said that wholesale dealers, importers, and manufacturers were increasing prices daily.

They said that the wholesale market fixes different rates in the morning and in the evening and no one was there to ask them and regulate prices.

They said that they have given a five-day ultimatum to the Punjab chief minister to regulate prices in the wholesale market, otherwise, all grocery traders from across Punjab will gather outside the Chief Minister's House in Lahore and stage a sit-in.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 25^th, 2022.