Prices of essential items soar by 100 per cent

The prices of relief goods in the open market in Rawalpindi have escalated during the ongoing flood calamity.

Prices of goods such as basic food, dry goods, and medicines have soared by 50 to 100 percent.

As a result, the organisations, institutions, and all those people who have been assisting flood victims are stuck in desperate circumstances. Small organisations have started to limit their number of relief supplies to lower down the relief expenditure thus missing out on those who are in dire need of aid.

Similarly, the price of tents, pulses, rice, warm clothes, dried milk, tea leaves, jaggery, sugar, ghee, oil, and soap has significantly increased, according to a market survey of wholesale dealers. As of today, a basic tent costs Rs4,000 whereas a standard quality tent can be bought at Rs12,000. Food items are priced at a much higher rate such that rice is being sold at Rs350 per kg, sugar at Rs110 per kg, flour at Rs115 per kg, whole grain flour at Rs125 per kg

lentils including (white gram at Rs400 per kg, chickpeas at Rs310 per kg, Daal Masoor at Rs400 per kg, Daal Mong at Rs350 per kg), Ghee at Rs550 per 900 grams, tea leaf at Rs1600 per kg, dry milk at Rs500 per kg, jaggery at Rs250 per kg and each soap at Rs150. Similarly, packing bags now also cost much higher than it did before.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 15^th, 2022.