HARIPPUR, Sept 10: Minister of State for Finance Omar Ayub Khan has said that the government was taking practical measures to reduce price pressure on consumers by ensuring regular supply of food items. This he told Dawn here on Saturday. He said that the government, in this regard, used supply side mechanism rather than coercive administrative measures to check hoarding and ensure supply of daily use items and to this effect, allowed the import of food items from the neighbouring countries.

“Additionally the supply of different edible items particularly sugar and flour through utility stores at controlled rates is a case in point,” Mr Khan said the rate of flour commodity in the country was lowest in the immediate region.

Flow of money to the rural areas, and rapid growth rate of 8.4 pc of the GDP, he said, was also proved instrumental in inflation measuring 9 pc in the country. However he said that the government was utilizing efforts to arrest the current trend of inflation.

About sugar crisis the minister said that the supply side mechanism, rather than use of force had produced positive results and discouraged hoarding by opening up supply of this vital commodity, which would further help stabilizing the sugar price in the country. About flour price, the minister claimed that it was lowest in the entire immediate region.

About impact of jump in the oil prices on daily use items, Mr Ayub conceded that it was really a shock for the government but claimed that the negative impact would not be passed on to the consumers rather the government was devising some mechanism to absorb the impact as it did last year.

When reminded of the disparity of oil prices in Pakistan and other countries, Mr Ayub claimed that oil prices in Pakistan were 40 per cent less than the other countries.

He told that to reduce import bill on oil and keep the prices within the reach the prime minister has constituted a cabinet committee on energy, which was tasked to look into the ways to conserve fuel and explore new sources of energy.

About poverty alleviation he said that the government has earmarked 1pc of the GDP that was Rs5 billion, for Khushal Pakistan Fund (KPF), which was being utilized in provision of electricity potable water, sewerage and other civic amenities.