05 July 2004	Monday	16 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425

LAHORE, July 4: Wheat prices in the province go up to Rs420 to Rs425 per 40kg, taking the flour price to over Rs230 per 20kg in open market.

Millers, retailers and the government are blaming one another for the rise, but the fact remains that ever-increasing prices of wheat and flour continue to haunt the common man with the government acting as a silent and helpless spectator.

Officially, the procurement drive is still going on in the Punjab, but the price of wheat is ranging between Rs420 and Rs425 per maund in Lahore and surrounding districts against the support price of Rs358.

According to reports from the other parts, the situation in the wheat producing area of central and southern Punjab is also becoming increasingly alarming; it has already touched Rs410, and still rising. In Karachi, wheat price stands at Rs480 per maund and it is as high as Rs500 in Quetta.

Flour prices on the pattern of wheat prices have already gone up by Rs15 to 20 per 20kg bag in Lahore during the last one week. The 20kg atta bag is available in markets at Rs232 as compared to Rs212 to Rs215 last week.

The shopkeepers blame flour millers for increasing rates by Rs10 on each 20kg bag. This burden will naturally be passed on to consumers, they say. The millers, on the other hand, blame wheat marketing and hoarding of wheat for the increase in prices and maintain that only a market mechanism will stabilize the prices.

The Punjab Food Department and the district government hold each other responsible for official failure to check the price hike. The officials of the department say that district governments have the required and efficient mechanism to check prices and the district government think that they are unable to effectively control prices unless they have magisterial powers.

Sources say dent in wheat production and public sector's failure to procure wheat are the main reasons for wheat crisis in the country. The flour prices have witnessed an upsurge and the wheat market has started drying up, the sources said and added it was a rare incident as wheat had been available in abundance during this period of year in the past.

Following the consistent demand of flour millers, the Punjab government has decided to lift an inter-district ban on wheat movement from the next week. The millers claim that this step will help control the growing price of wheat and flour, but their optimism remains untested and uncertain.

It may be mentioned that both the official agencies -- the food departments and the Pakistan Agriculture Storage and Services Corporation -- have failed to achieve the respective procurement targets. So far, they have procured 3.44 million tons of wheat, which is only 60.4 per cent of the 5.7 million tons target.

According to official statistics, the Punjab has so far procured 2.43 million tons of wheat against the target of 3.5 million tons, which is only 69.7 per cent of target. The procurement last year during the same period was 2.4 million tons.

The Passco has procured 823,254 tons of wheat against the target of 1.5 million tons for the current year, attaining 54.9 per cent of the target. In Sindh, 179,411 tons of wheat have so far been procured against the set target of 600,000 tons, showing an achievement of 29.9 per cent of the target.

Balochistan has so far procured 1,025 tons of wheat against the set target of 100,000 tons.