October 30, 2007	Tuesday	Shawwal 17, 1428

KARACHI, Oct 29: Consumers continue to suffer owing to fresh increase in the price of ghee, cooking oil, milk and washing powder. The price of 16 kg tin pack ghee has increased from Rs1,330 to Rs1,465, showing a net rise of Rs135 per tin.

The one kg pack is now priced at Rs91 as compared to Rs83 on Oct 1.

Branded ghee packers are building up pressure on the government for a cut in import duty on palm olein, the main ingredient used in making vegetable ghee and cooking oil, but so far nothing has been done.

Chairman, Pakistan Vanaspati Manufacturers Association (PVMA), Shaikh Amjad Rashid, said that he had again talked to the Federal Industries and Production Minister, Jehangir Khan Tarin, three days back who had reckoned that edible oil prices had gone beyond affordable level.

He said Tareen had assured him that the government was reviewing the duty structure and he would discuss the problem of ghee industry with the Prime Minister, Shaukat Aziz.

Amjad Rasheed recalled that senior government officials had been issuing stereotyped statements of reviewing and rationalising duty structure for the last one year, but so far no action had been taken to bring down prices.

He said since July 2006, the C&F price of imported edible oil — palm olein had almost doubled. It was $465 per ton in July 2006 while currently it is over $1,000 per ton.

The component of government taxes in the landed price of imported edible oil ranges between Rs22 and 24 per kg.

He asked the government to frame both short and long-term measures to control the prices at the domestic level.

A branded ghee maker said the local industry was virtually confused how to maintain domestic prices in view of rising palm olein rates in Malaysia and Indonesia.

He said prices had already increased many times in the last one year.

Dalda five litre cooking oil now costs Rs530 in retail while it was selling at Rs440 in January this year and Rs395 in September 2006.

Milkpak price increased to Rs44 a litre on Sept 1 from Rs42. Last week, others packers also increased the price.

Unilever has increased the rate of Surf Excel to Rs60 from Rs55 for a 400 grams pack while a one kg pack now costs Rs140 as against Rs135. Other producers have also followed the suit.

General Secretary of Karachi Retail Grocers Group (KRGG), Farid Qureishi said that the government was busy in other issues while it was ignoring the main issue of continuous inflationary trend in food and other items.