Price control: 114 arrested for overcharging for roti

Action taken against tandoors selling roti at Rs7, naan for Rs10

LAHORE: Price control magistrates on Monday arrested and fined 114 tandoor-wallahs for overcharging their customers for roti and naan.

The Lahore Naan-Bai Association had raised the prices of naan and khameeri roti to Rs10 and simple roti to Rs7 ahead of Eidul Azha. The association had said at the time that the prices were increased due to the shortage of manpower during Eid holidays.

However, the prices never came down after Eid and the citizens had to pay the new prices for roti and naan.

Muhammad Tauseef, a customer at Khan Naan Shop in Allama Iqbal Town’s Moon Market, told The Express Tribune that he had to buy the bread at higher prices ever since Eid.

Lateef Amjad, buying bread from a tandoor in Barkat Market, said: “We cannot do anything about the raised prices if the government does not take action against them.”

Hafeez, a mechanic, said that his Rs9,000 per month salary was fully spent. “I have to spend Rs100 daily on buying roti. The government must enforce the prices it sets,” he said.

DCO Captain (retd) Muhammad Usman said that the price of a 100 gram roti had been set at Rs6. “The price of a naan and khameeri roti is Rs8. Anyone who charges more than that will be dealt with an iron hand,” he said.

A city district government official, requesting anonymity because he was not authorised to talk to the media, said that the price of roti had been set keeping in mind the input prices. “Flour for a 100 gram bread costs Rs4. The gas used to cook it costs Rs0.6. The labor cost is Rs0.50 per roti. That is why we have set the price at Rs6. A roti costs Rs5.1 and the tandoor owner makes Rs0.9 per roti. This is a fair margin,” he said.

A total of 114 tandoor owners were fined between Rs1,500-Rs2,000 for overcharging their customers. “A total of Rs208,000 was collected in fines from these shopkeepers,” he said.

The crackdown against tandoor owners is expected to continue for a few days.

According to a statement issued by the city district government, the price magistrates also visited 880 shops to check prices of food items. Eighty-one shopkeepers were found overcharging their customers. They were fined Rs180,000. Cases were registered against 29 others for hoarding. Magistrates also arrested 31 shopkeepers for this violation.

Drive against polio: The city district government is starting a three-day campaign to administer polio drops to kids from Tuesday (today) in six towns of the city. The drops will be administered in union councils of Data Gunj Bukhsh, Ravi, Samanabad, Gulberg, Allama Iqbal and Aziz Bhatti towns.

The district government has constituted 1,850 teams to administer the drops to around 800,000 children.
The district coordination officer will supervise the campaign.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 21^st, 2014.