September 13, 2007	Thursday	Sha'aban 30, 1428

KARACHI, Sept 12: The city government has issued price list for Ramazan. It excludes main items like flour varieties, branded ghee and cooking oil, branded tea, tetra and powder milk, sugar, beverages, while includes irrelevant items like complete range of dry fruits.

The main emphasis in the list has been on pulses, rice, spices, dates, loose tea, loose dry milk, loose ghee and cooking oil.

In absence of any official rates for main items, officials invested with special magisterial powers cannot book the retailers for over charging. Ultimately, the consumers will be on the mercy of the retailers, who will demand prices of branded tea, flour varieties, branded ghee and cooking oil on their own free will.

In view of higher atta rates, triggered by lingering wheat crisis, market reports say that flour millers have pressurised the city government not to issue atta rates in the official price list on its own in view of rising wheat prices.

Consumers are now already paying Rs2 per kg more to buy atta no.2.5, chakki atta and fine atta as compared with rates in July 2007 despite a bumper wheat crop of 23.5 million tons, and a ban on export of wheat, atta and value added items.

However, ghee and cooking oil producers are likely to come out with some Ramazan package but it will not bring any relief for the consumers as rates have been rising for the last one year. In September 2006, five litre tin of Dalda cooking oil was priced at Rs395 as compared to current price of Rs 530. In January it was selling at Rs440.

A leading tetra milk producer issued a new enhanced rate of Rs44 per litre on September 1, as compared with Rs42 earlier. Exactly a year back, it was available at Rs37 a litre.

Besides, Nido one kg pack now costs Rs310 as compared with Rs295 in July this year. It was available at Rs260 in March 2007.The city government had held various meetings with tetra milk producers few months back to control its prices but all proved futile.

Fresh milk prices in the list have been fixed at Rs32 per litre at retail level, while retailers have already been charging Rs34 per litre.

The city government has put on display banners in the city at main thoroughfares insisting consumers to register complaints against profiteering at various numbers but controlling prices in Ramazan appears to be a tough task for the government, which has only 36 officials to check overcharging by the retailers and wholesalers.

General Secretary Karachi Retail Grocers Group (KRGG) Farid Qureishi said that the city government had excluded the main items from the list on its own.

Retailers wanted that every item, which is used in Ramazan, should be included in the price list. He said that the city government officials argued that sugar, ghee and cooking oil rates were not included in the list because they were federal government’s subject, while flour price comes under the provincial government.

Chairman Karachi Wholesalers’ Grocers Association (KWGA) Anis Majeed said the association would take up the matter with the city government for ignoring major items from the list. He said that the city government had not informed the association about removing major items from the list in pre-Ramazan meetings.