KARACHI: Police also claim share in price increase: Flour shortage
By Sabihuddin Ghausi
KARACHI, April 3: Transporters are paying Rs30 to 50 on a 100-kg bag while bringing the harvested wheat from interior of Sindh to Karachi which is one of the factors contributing to a hike in flour prices.
Police check-posts at Sakrand, Khipro and Sanghar stop the trucks carrying wheat bags and demand money citing a ban on inter-district movement of wheat.
"There is no ban on inter-district wheat movement in the province," a leader of flour mills association said. Every year, the Sindh Food Department enforces this ban to ensure success of its procurement operations.
Despite the restriction, the procurement operation in Sindh during last season proved a failure as farmers prefer to sell their commodity to private traders who offer higher rates than official prices. There had been a lot of outcry against this restriction.
This year, the ban has not been enforced, but the Food Department stopped private transporters from lifting wheat from farmers and carrying it to other districts "till the government target of half a million tons of wheat procurement is achieved."
The police are taking full advantage of this restriction byresorting to extortion. Sometimes, the transporters have to pay money at more than one check-posts on their way to Karachi.
City Nazim Naimatullah Khan has drawn the Sindh government's attention to this extortion and has demanded abolition of 'unofficial levy'.
The Food Department has also posted one inspector on each of the 78 flour mills to check the quantity of wheat being ground. "They end up with Rs1,000 to 1,500 payment every week" a flour mill owner said.
Flour millers claim that they are being forced to pay roughly one rupee to Rs1.50 extra on every kilogram of wheat. This, they say, is one of the main factors leading to a hike in flour price in the city.
But in a letter addressed to the Sindh chief secretary, the city nazim has claimed of bringing down the retail flour price to Rs13-14 from Rs18 per kilogram. On his instructions, the district government carried out raids on retail outlets and arrested 50 traders found indulged in over-charging.
"Retailers say that wholesalers were supplying them flour at Rs12.75 per kilogram," Naimatullah Khan informed the chief secretary in his official communication. One of the reasons for high price of flour being demanded by the wholesalers is that local traders are being forced to pay at least one rupee extra on every kilogram of wheat.
The nazim has urged the chief secretary to activate provincial government in monitoring the practice by wholesalers and flour mills, and also ensure abolition of the unofficial levy on wheat transportation.
As wheat starts trickling in from the fields into Karachi market, the wholesale prices are reported to have come down to Rs960 to Rs980 on a 100-kg bag. Market sources expect an stability in wheat prices in the next few weeks as harvesting picks up in Sindh by the end of April and begins in Punjab.
But coming Ramazan, in mid-October, again demands a high alert from the administration as Karachi remains a captive market of 14 million population and is located far away from wheat growing areas. A nexus of corrupt officials and unscrupulous traders and millers exploit the situation during Ramazan.
This year, too, the prices of flour had started creeping up just before Ramazan and the wheat shortage assumed proportion of a crisis in late December. In a way, a wheat crisis still lingers on and the flour price in open market is still higher than the officially fixed price of Rs12 per kilogram.
