LAHORE: Flour millers say the recent oil prices’ increase will make the wheat flour prices surge and also fear flour crisis during Ramazan as the Punjab Food Department has begun impounding trucks laden with wheat.

Pakistan Flour Mills Association Punjab chapter chairman Habib Leghari, Asim Raza, Liaquat Ali Khan and others said in a joint statement here on Sunday that the government kept the masses in the dark by enhancing oil tariff while the economic conditions of the country were already dismal.

They said the oil price hike would lead to an increase of at least Rs2 per 20kg bag of flour at a time when the sacred month of Ramazan is setting in. They lamented that instead of offering relief to the masses, the government threw petrol bomb on the people.

The PFMA leaders also feared that the Ramazan package would be hit leading to flour crisis in the province as the food department officials had begun checking and impounding the vehicles of flour millers carrying wheat consignments from Gujranwala and Gujrat to Rawalpindi notwithstanding the fact that the vehicle crew carried all required legal documents for transportation of the commodity.

They said if wheat won’t reach the flour mills it would cause flour shortage during Ramazan.

Meanwhile, a meeting of the PFMA has been convened to discuss the situation.

Published in Dawn, May 6th, 2019