ISLAMABAD: A parliamentary committee has asked the government to break cartelisation that leads to lofty profiteering at the cost of voiceless consumers as food prices witnessed an unprecedented hike in September.
The National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance recommended measures on macroeconomic front to tame inflation, and has asked the government to break up cartelisation in certain important economic sectors, reported The News.
Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) data showed that prices of sugar went up 35 percent, chicken 64 percent, onion 96 percent, potatoes 30 percent, fresh vegetables 25 percent and wheat 12 percent in September over the corresponding month a year earlier.
Sources quoted in the report said the National Price Monitoring Committee, working under the supervision of secretary finance, proved clueless about how to check hike in food prices, despite holding meetings after the directives of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Finance.
“Without restoration of magistrate powers for provinces, the price control cannot be done effectively,” a source was quoted as saying in the report. Aisha Ghaus Pasha, chairperson of subcommittee of National Assembly on Finance and Revenue, said that it was an irony the subcommittee submitted its findings about price hike before the release of the latest figures on food inflation from the PBS.
Poor segments of the society consume 50 to 55 percent of their income to meet food expenses, “so this kind of price surge would result into falling of more poor into poverty trap,” Pasha said.
“The subcommittee presented its report without having any political consideration or for purpose of any point scoring but it genuinely believed that the macroeconomic policies were playing havoc with the lives of common people of Pakistan,” she said.
It is defected MANDI?ARATHI based Supply chain system Farmers today sold eggplant for Rs 60/20 kgs and ended up Rs 60/Kg in retail within 12 Hrs with no value addition neither farmers benefit neither consumer benifit