ISLAMABAD: The National Price Monitoring Committee (NPMC) on Monday directed the provincial and district administrations to proactively monitor the prices of chicken and edible oil in order to ensure smooth supply at fair prices across the country.
A meeting of NPMC was held at the Finance Division to review the price trend of essential commodities, especially wheat flour, eggs, chicken, sugar and edible oil during the last week.
The meeting was attended by the representatives of the Ministry of Industries and Production, Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of National Food Security & Research, provincial administrations, PASSCO, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, Competition Commission of Pakistan, Federal Board of Revenue and Finance Division.
The finance secretary briefed the NPMC on weekly inflation, which increased 0.5pc. NPMC noted decline in prices of wheat, sugar, tomatoes, onion, eggs and potatoes during the week.
Meanwhile, the chief secretaries from respective provincial governments updated the NPMC on the availability of sufficient stocks of wheat as well as average per day release of the commodity, which was stable across the country.
The NPMC directed the provincial and district administrations to proactively monitor the prices of food items, particularly chicken and edible oil, in order to ensure smooth supply at fair prices across the country.
It also directed the Balochistan food secretary and PASSCO managing director to make an immediate arrangement for lifting of 20,000MT wheat from PASSCO to ensure steady supply of wheat flour in the province.
The committee urged the provincial governments and departments concerned to make consolidated and coordinated efforts to avoid hoarding, black marketing and smuggling so that uninterrupted supply of basic commodities at affordable prices could be ensured across the country.
