Tarin issues directions to maintain strategic reserves of essential commodities

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue, Shaukat Tarin, on Monday issued directions to relevant departments to maintain the strategic reserves of essential commodities and ensure timely and appropriate measures to avoid any untoward situation.

“Prices of commodities of daily use have a direct impact on the lives of common people,” he said, while chairing a meeting of the National Price Monitoring Committee (NPMC) held at the Finance Division. 

The meeting was attended by SPAM on Finance and Revenue, federal minister for National Food Security and Research (NFS&R), secretary Finance Division, all chief secretaries, chief commissioner Islamabad, representatives of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives, and other relevant departments.

Tarin briefed the participants of the meeting that a multi-pronged approach is being followed for this purpose. “Different schemes and incentives have been rolled out and many more are on the cards to uplift the lives of common people,” he said. 

Tarin said that the recently presented federal budget for FY22 is a practical manifestation of the pro poor approach of the government, adding that all departments and organisations should contribute to uplift the lives of the underprivileged.

Te secretary Finance briefed the meeting that the weekly SPI decreased by 0.59 per cent during the last week. A week earlier the weekly SPI had declined by 0.61 per cent. It is the third consecutive week that SPI is declining.

He further informed that the prices of nine items declined during last week, the prices of 28 items remained stable while the prices of 14 items saw a slight upward trend.

Tarin said the NPMC should adopt a comprehensive and proactive strategy to minimise the gap of prices between grower and retailers. 

He said that a reduction in gap will significantly lower the prices of the essential commodities for end users.

He further said that the federal bureau of statistics is an independent entity but a committee, with SAPM on Finance and Revenue as chairman, consisting of representatives from all stakeholders including representatives from provinces should engage with the bureau to work out further perfection in data collection mechanism of PBS wherever required.