Hafeez Sheikh, Finance Advisor, directed the provincial governments and all concerned authorities to take immediate, effective, and efficient measures to curb the rise in prices of essential commodities, to reduce the rate of profit at the wholesale and retail level, and to bring reasonable prices to essential commodities. The access process should be fully monitored. The National Price Monitoring Committee met on Monday to review the prices of flour, wheat, sugar, tomatoes, onions, ghee, potatoes, poultry, and other essential commodities weekly. Giving a briefing on the trend, he said that according to the statistics of the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, there is a trend of reduction in prices of flour and Sugar and onion, a slight increase in prices of tomato, potato, and chicken, ghee prices are stable. Talks on sugar and wheat stocks in the respective provinces were held
It was informed that there is a reasonable quantity of food items in the country. Chief Secretary Sindh said that prices of flour and sugar have come down in the province and prices of poultry have increased marginally. Chief Secretary Punjab said that the prices of tomatoes are fluctuating but in coming weeks. Prices will stabilize, he said, adding that there are 360 convenience markets in the province. The Punjab government is releasing wheat as per the policy, which has stabilized the prices. Chief Secretary Khyber Pakhtunkhwa said that the provincial government is releasing 5,000 tonnes of wheat daily. As a result, the price of flour in the market has come down from Rs 20 to Rs 30 per sack. He said that local tomato production has also started coming into the market. It is expected that the supply of tomatoes will increase in the coming weeks. The government of Punjab and Sindh apprised the meeting about the sugarcane crushing season and said that it would further reduce sugar prices and increase availability in the coming days. The MD of the Utility Stores Corporation informed the committee that there is a reasonable stock of Chinese and Ataca in the utility stores across the country and the goods are being provided to the citizens at discounted rates.
