‘Knead more dough’ to make roti

Flatbread, bakery items like cakes biscuits getting out of reach for many

KARACHI/HYDERABAD:

With an increase in the rates of wheat flour, the price of flat bread or naan has ticked up by Rs5, the tandoor owners said on Thursday.

The rates of flour from mills have risen to Rs125 to Rs130 per kilogramme, while chakki or stone grinder owners have also increased the price. Whole grain chakki flour has started selling at Rs140 to Rs150 per kg.

Tandoori roti has started selling at Rs25 in different areas of the city, while taftan and sheermal are being sold at Rs70 per piece with an increase of Rs10.

Due to the high cost of flour, the problems of the people are not limited to bread alone, a new wave of increase in the prices of all bakery and breakfast items has also hit the common men. Bakeries have increased the prices of cakes, biscuits, rusks and other bakery items by Rs80 per kg. The price of 25 grammes of biscuits rallies Rs140 to Rs160.

Similarly, the price of 25 grammes of rusk has been increased for the third time in a year to Rs120.

All companies that make bread, buns and other bakery items have released a new price lists, according to which, from January, the price of sliced small bread will go up by Rs10 to Rs15, while the price of sliced medium bread will increase by Rs20, and the price of large double bread will be up by Rs30.

According to the citizens, the cost of breakfast has increased by 100 per cent during the year. For a small family of two adults and two children, the cost of breakfast has reached Rs500, which includes, four eggs, one litre of milk, bread and rusk and a small bar of margarine.

Recent hikes in the price of wheat flour will further increase the miseries of people who are already over-burdened by rising inflation and find it difficult to make both ends meet.

Do away with sham subsidy

The Aata Chakki Owners Welfare Association, Hyderabad, has urged the government to do away with the sham subsidy available to few flourmills owners who line the pockets of select officers of the Food Department and sell the golden grain at market price.

They asked the government to increase the price of a 100 kilogram wheat bag to Rs10,000 from the existing Rs5,825 because only a few government officers and flour mills benefit from this subsidy. The grain is selling in the market at Rs100/kg and the flour after grinding is available at Rs120 to Rs140 per kg, they said.

In a statement issued in Hyderabad on Thursday, the association’s president Haji Muhammad Yameen and other office bearers alleged that the public is not benefiting from the subsidy worth billions of rupees.

“The government should immediately fix Rs10,000 per bag price so that the revenue may go to the coffers of the government instead of the pockets of some officers and owners of mills and chakkis [flour],” suggested the association’s president. He added the lack of accountability in the Sindh Food Department has allowed the officers to distribute wheat stock arbitrarily.

He added, “Every year, tons of wheat goes missing from the government warehouses with no accountability.”

He observed that due to such corrupt officers, a substantial financial loss is caused to the government exchequer.

The association further alleged that neither the food officials met the wheat procurement’s target nor did they set up checkposts to stop the unauthorised movement of wheat carrying trucks of some use.

The office bearers claimed that the District Food Controller of Hyderabad did not release grain to ata (flour) Chakkis in December and October. They also blamed the district administration for not notifying the official rates of flour for the last three months.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 30^th, 2022.