As the district administration is running rounds and raids to ensure that shopkeepers are charging a fixed price, many claim that they are chalaned, fined and then charge their customers double.
“It is wrong for the administration to assume that after they fine shopkeepers for overcharging customers, it will stop them,” said Farid Qureshi, the general secretary of the Sindh Grocery Retailers Association. “Do you think that after their men leave the shops, the shopkeepers can’t just increase the prices again?” He added that the commissioner’s drive against shopkeepers who charged extra was useless as many shopkeepers settle their loss by charging customers extra.
Kashif Ali, a resident of Federal B Area, told The Express Tribune that the commissioner’s people fined several shopkeepers at the Water Pump Market just before Maghrib on Thursday but that did not change anything. “The next day when we went to the market, the shopkeepers were charging the same prices as the day before,” he said. “The administration should come up with a system where they can monitor these people all the time.” He added that the commissioner’s campaign was a good idea.
A shopkeeper in North Nazimabad’s Qadri Market said that the assistant commissioner had conducted a raid and fined him. He ended up paying around Rs10,000. “They just ruined my business and left,” he said. “What do they want us to do? We get the commodities at a high rate so it does not make sense to sell it for less.” He added that if they followed the official price list, they would not be able to make enough money to support their families and live comfortably.
According to Qureshi, the mechanism of fixing prices is very complex. He claimed that the commissioner’s office just fixes the price lists of essential items which normally have three different qualities and different prices. He said that it was not possible for a retailer to sell high quality daal for the same amount as low quality daal.
He recalled that former Karachi Commissioner, Shafiqur Rehman Paracha had ordered his team to not fine shopkeepers because they, the shopkeepers, would charge their customers extra for the challan money. He added that there was a need to address this issue but the problem could not be solved by roaming around Bachaat Bazaars and tuck shops.
“The commissioner’s office has been running this drive for more than a year and so far it has done nothing,” he said. “The district administration gets the law enforcement agencies and the media on board and then just raid stores and fine shopkeepers.” Qureshi added that the commissioner’s office had established a control room and a phone line to register complaints, but no emails or calls were ever returned.
Karachi commissioner, Shoaib Ahmed Siddiqui, however rejected these claims and said that the prices were fixed with the consent of the retailers and wholesalers associations. “We have had meetings where all the stakeholders agreed on the prices. I don’t know why they are protesting,” he said. “We will continue with the drive against profiteers until they adhere to the official price list.”
Published in The Express Tribune, July 5th, 2014.
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