Price control magistrates missing from markets

10 to 30 per cent increase in prices of vegetables and fruits owing to the absence of price-control magistrates.

LAHORE: Daily-use commodities are being sold in city markets at higher rates as all 70 price-control magistrates, appointed by the district coordination officer a month ago, have stopped performing duties without official notification.

A central market committee official told The Express Tribune that there has been around a 10 to 30 per cent increase in prices of vegetables and fruits alone owing to the absence of price-control magistrates.

He said that the magistrates, appointed during Ramazan, stopped performing their duties after the Eid break.

“The prices had come down during the time the magistrates were active,” said a shopper at Akbari Mandi, “now the shopkeepers do not even bother to display official rate lists.”

He said it was his second visit to the market in this week and he had not seen a single price-control magistrate around.

An official appointed as a price-control magistrate told The Express Tribune that he had other tasks to perform and could no longer take time out to visit markets and monitor prices.

During Ramazan, he said, he had to put his duties relating to town planning, approving building plans, removing encroachments and monitoring ongoing development projects on hold to visit markets and monitor prices.

“No one bothered consulting me before nominating me as a price-control magistrate,” the official said, adding, he could not manage his work with frequent visits to the markets thrown in.

Talking to The Express Tribune, DCO Sajjad Ahmed Bhutta said that he had received reports that the magistrates were not visiting the markets. He said he had not issued any directive saying their duties as price magistrates had ended. These officials, the DCO said, had clear instructions that they were to carry on with their duties till further orders. “They were not appointed for the month of Ramazan only,” he said.

The magistrates were to monitor prices and weights of the items on sale and impose fines on shopkeepers found overcharging or tampering with the weights.

The current and official prices of several vegetables and fruits, according to the central market committee official, are:

Potato prices, fixed by the CDGL at Rs22 to Rs28 per kg, have been increased to Rs30 to Rs32 per kg. The prices of onion, fixed at Rs27 per kg, have been increased to Rs30 per kg. The shoppers reported that the onions available were substandard and rotten.

The prices of tomato have been increased to Rs48 per kg, though they were fixed at Rs28 to 42 per kg.  The prices of garlic (native and of China), fixed at Rs185 to Rs190 per kg and Rs185 to Rs195 per kg, have been increased up to Rs200 per kg.

The prices of ginger were set at Rs160 to Rs165 per kg, but it is being sold at up to Rs180 per kg. The prices of spinach were fixed at Rs10 to Rs12 per kg, but it is being sold at up to Rs15 per kg. Pumpkin, whose prices were set at Rs34 to Rs40 per kg, is available in market at Rs45 per kg.   The rates for different varieties of Apple were set at Rs50 to Rs75 per kg, but these are being sold at between Rs60 and Rs90 per kg.

The prices of pomegranate were fixed at Rs50 to Rs110 per kg but it is being sold at Rs70 to Rs120 per kg.

The prices for grapes (sundar khani) were set at Rs140 to Rs160 per kg, but they are available between Rs150 to Rs180 per kg. Banana prices were set at Rs30 to 40 per dozen, but it is being sold at Rs38 to Rs45 per dozen.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 30^th, 2010.