Mechanism to control inflation 'falls victim to bureaucracy'

System to regulate prices launched by last govt suspended under caretaker set-up

ISLAMABAD:

The innovative system that had been developed by the previous government to manage inflation in the country has fallen victim to bureaucracy as its operation has been hindered under the caretaker government, sources in the finance ministry said on Saturday.

The previous administration had established a cutting-edge dashboard to monitor the demand-supply position, and prices of essential commodities.

However, following intense opposition from the Pakistan Administrative Service (PAS), the application of this system has been suspended.

The Planning Commission, under significant pressure from senior officers, decided to scrap the dashboard altogether, the sources added.

The dashboard was intended to be implemented at the district level, provincial ministries, chief ministers' offices, federal ministries, and the offices of federal ministers and the prime minister.

The platform’s purpose was to display stocks of essential commodities, shortages in supply, and increases in prices.

The dashboard was designed to provide immediate information to concerned officers through mobile alerts regarding market shortages or high prices of items. It also featured price discrepancies across different markets.

The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) was responsible for creating this dashboard, which collected data from 51 markets in 31 cities on a weekly and monthly basis. The sources revealed that the dashboard had the capability to estimate demand and supply based on population and prices.

Moreover, the system highlighted market rates, DC rates, and consumer rates separately.

It also tracked the actions and rankings of respective deputy commissioners, commissioners, and chief secretaries.
Concerns were raised among various officers as their performance evaluations, including timeliness of actions and competency, could have been included in the Annual Confidential Report (ACR).

The sources indicated that the bureaucracy has deliberately kept the caretaker government uninformed about the dashboard, resulting in the government now being briefed on the outdated method.