KARACHI: Devaluation of the rupee against the dollar has taken its toll on the prices of essential items as some manufacturers have come out with fresh price hike.

Prices are likely to remain under pressure as the rupee lost its value further against the dollar over the past few days, thus pushing up the cost of imports of finished products besides making negative impact on arrival of imported raw materials.

Karachi Retail Grocers Group (KRGG) general secretary Farid Qureishi said a leading blender of tea has intimated surge in price by Rs80 per kg from Aug 1.

Giving some examples, he said the price of 950 grams of tea pack has been jacked up to Rs950 from Rs870 while the 190-gram pack price has been increased to Rs210 from Rs195.

The 100 teabag pack will cost Rs420 as against Rs370 followed by jump in 380 grams pack to Rs410 from Rs370 and 475-gram pack to Rs560 from Rs485.

He said the price of one kg Everyday tea whitener also went up to Rs770 from Rs730 while the price of one litre pack of Milkpak has been raised to Rs135 from Rs130. The rupee has lost its strength against the greenback by Rs12.49 since Dec 2017.

Another leading tea packer said he had not raised the price in the last six months despite higher cost of import on account of rupee devaluation against the dollar.

“Now, the price increase of Rs80-100 per kg is imminent which will be passed on to the consumers shortly as the company cannot sustain high cost of imports,” he added.

Karachi Wholesalers & Grocers Association (KWGA) chairman Anis Majeed said while the impact of previous devaluation has yet to be implemented fully another shock came on Monday with more alarming devaluation which is bound to make prices of imported items costlier.

Published in Dawn, July 19th, 2018