ISLAMABAD: The gap between actual prices of essential food items and rates fixed by the district administrations has widened sharply in Punjab during Ramazan.

However, it remained the third province after Balochistan and Sindh in terms of difference between market and official prices.With the start of Ramazan, prices of essential food items posted a rising trend which pushed Punjab to the third position among provinces and Balochistan at the top position. The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) ranks the provinces with Islamabad on a weekly basis. The exercise is aimed at highlighting issues of governance in controlling the prices.

The average gap of 31.07pc was recorded in Punjab between market prices of food items and the rates fixed by the district administration. Before Ramazan, the gap was reported at 15.28pc in Punjab. It shows almost a double increase in the gaps for end consumers.

In Balochistan, the gap before Ramazan was 33.28pc which has now raised to 42.08pc making the province the most expensive for consumers in the country, followed by 39.57pc in Sindh, and 18.84pc in Islamabad.

The average price gap in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is 17.89pc which is almost same the level as Ramazan. The rankings reflect the performance of chief secretaries who serve as the administrative heads of the provinces.

The gaps in prices have been worked out with the help of the Decision Support System for Inflation (DSSI) which reflects the failure of district administrations to enforce official prices. Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin recently asked the PBS to include prices of wholesales as well to calculate the actual impact of consumer items.

The PBS has developed the DSSI to provide information about prices of essential commodities to the National Price Monitory Committee, federal ministries, provincial governments and district administrations.

Under city-wise rankings, two cities retained their position as compared to last week, eight cities improved their ranking while seven cities declined in ranking. The difference between the top and the last city was 78.28 points this week while for the last week this difference was 76.57 points.

In Sindh, Karachi retained its top position with an increase in differential of 0.66 points to 87.77pc this week from 67.61pc between consumer prices and rates fixed by the district administrations last week, followed by an increase in differential of 50.54 points from 16.54pc to 67.08pc in Faisalabad (Punjab) and Quetta, with an increase of 21.76 points to 53.71pc from 31.95pc.

In Punjab, the price differential rebounded in few cities which dragged the oval ranking of the province. Sialkot has improved its position to top of having lowest gap which declined by 1.69 points to 9.49pc from 11.18pc, followed by Lahore with increase in differential of 0.13 points from 11.04pc to 11.17pc, Rawalpindi an increase of 1.87 points to 14.68pc from 12.81pc and an increase of 0.55 points to 16.64pc from 16.09pc.

A decrease of 5.31 points was recorded in Bahawalpur to 35.67pc from 40.98pc, followed by 2.57 points decline in Multan to 43.71pc from 46.28pc. Bahawalpur is no more a city with the lowest price gap.

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the gap declined by 0.37 points to 18.71pc in Peshawar and by 1.11 points increase to 17.07pc in Bannu.

In Balochistan, the gap was reported at 53.71pc in Quetta and at 30.45pc in Khuzdar. In Quetta, an increase of 21.76 points was reported while in Khuzdar an increase of 2.62 points was noted in price gaps.

Last week, the ranking of districts showed an almost similar trend, with Karachi on the higher side. This showed that the district administration in the city has yet to enforce DC rates.

Published in Dawn, April 29th, 2021