KARACHI, Dec 11: Despite the recent steps taken in terms of the wheat crisis, retailers increased the rates of chakki atta from Rs24 to Rs25-26 per kilogramme within a day while millers, who pushed up the rate of an 80-kilogramme bag of atta from Rs1,450 to Rs1,525-1,550 on Thursday, have yet to reverse their rates.
On Tuesday, the rates of a 100-kg bag of wheat were quoted at between Rs1,750 and Rs1,775, as compared to Rs1,900 on Monday.
The general secretary of the Karachi Retail Grocers Group (KRGG), Mohammed Farid Qureishi, said that millers had not yet reduced their prices. “Furthermore, city government officials are using harassment tactics by raiding shops and imposing heavy fines on the spot for reasons such as over-charging,” he complained. “In the absence of any official atta rates, many retailers are simply not selling atta for fear of fines.” Saying that the government should announce an official rate before checking the retail market, Mr Qureishi pointed out that “we are now getting a 10-kg Ashrafi atta bag at Rs220 from the mills and it is retailed at Rs220.” The same quantity was available at Rs210 a week ago and at Rs200 on November 1.
The secretary general of the KRGG said that he was unsure whether atta prices would fall since prices depended on the supply to flour millers.
According to the president of the Aligarh Food Market, S.M. Nazir Shah, up to 250 retailers decided to keep their businesses closed on Wednesday in protest against government officials’ harassment over the past two days.
“Some 10 market traders at Aligarh Market near Banaras paid Rs165,000 in fines for deliberately creating a shortage by hiding the commodity, maintaining huge stocks and over-charging,” he said. “But retailers can’t be blamed when there is no official rate.”
The senior vice president and chairman of the wheat-flour committee of the Karachi Wholesale Grocers Association (KWGA), Malik Zulfiqar Ali, told Dawn that “millers are providing low quantities; wheat rates have declined but not those of the atta produced by flour mills.”
Conversely, a member of the executive committee of the Pakistan Flour Mills Association’s Sindh Circle, Malik Naeem Ahmed Khan, opined that a price decline was likely by Thursday. “Millers will start getting wheat by Wednesday evening,” he said, and hoped that they would reduce their rates within three days. “The release of 40,000 tons of the commodity in the next 15 days will make a difference,” he said. “Millers who suspended operations are likely to resume work once they start getting wheat from Landhi Godown, and wheat has also started arriving from Punjab.” He added that wheat and atta were being smuggled to Afghanistan and Central Asian states, and the government should come up with practical measures to arrest this trend.
KARACHI, Dec 11: Despite the recent steps taken in terms of the wheat crisis, retailers increased the rates of chakki atta from Rs24 to Rs25-26 per kilogramme within a day while millers, who pushed up the rate of an 80-kilogramme bag of atta from Rs1,450 to Rs1,525-1,550 on Thursday, have yet to reverse their rates.
