ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said on Monday that the government is very serious on keeping the prices of the essential commodities at appropriate level and it will take all necessary steps to devise expeditious mechanism to bring down the prices.

He stated this while chairing a meeting at the Finance Ministry here which reviewed agricultural products prices and took cognizance of the manipulated prices of potato at Rs50 per kg in the local market.

In his 2nd meeting in the last three days over the prices of the agricultural products, the minister was given a detailed briefing about the production, supply, consumption and storage chain of the potato.

He was informed that there was almost 1.1 million tonnes of surplus potatoes in the country and the prices of potato are being artificially manipulated at a much higher level by the hoarders, speculators and middlemen.

He was informed that in a neighbouring country potato was being sold at much less price.

The finance minister, after listening to the stakeholders decided that if the prices of the potato were not brought to the normal level within three days then all the taxes and levies on the import of the potatoes would be lifted to bring the prices to a level less than Rs30 per kg.

He concluded that the profiteers would not be allowed to manipulate excess margins by holding supplies to the market.

The meeting was attended by Minister for National Food Security and Research Sikandar Hayat Khan Bosan, Dr Farrukh Javed, Minister of Agriculture Punjab, Dr Waqar Masood, Finance Secretary, Seerat Asghar Jaura, Secretary NFS and Reaserch, Dr Iftikhar Ahmad, Chairman PARC, Rana Assad Amin, Adviser to the Finance Ministry, Shahid Mahmood, Special Assistance to Finance Minister and other senior officials of federal and Punjab governments.—APP