ISLAMABAD: After a lapse of four months, the coalition government on Tuesday revived the National Price Monitoring Committee (NPMC).

Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal chaired the first meeting to review the prices of essential commodities and directed the relevant stakeholders to maintain a close watch on the prices of food items and proceed against hoarders.

State Finance Minister Dr Aisha Ghaus and other senior officials of various ministries attended the meeting.

The NPMC is usually chaired by the finance minister — in PML-N’s last tenure it was headed by Ishaq Dar and in the PTI government by Shaukat Tarin. However, provinces were represented by provincial chief secretaries.

Soon after coming to power, the 13-party coalition government disbanded the dedicated committee, which used to meet every Monday to monitor prices of essential commodities, for no cogent reasons.

During the meeting, Mr Iqbal observed that rising inflation needed to be checked to ease the burden on citizens, an official announcement said.

“Immediate measures are needed to control the prices of essential commodities and this is our top priority to provide maximum relief to the common man,” he remarked.

While the government projected a modest inflationary annual target of 11.5pc for FY23 in the budget documents, the Federal Board of Revenue, which uses inflation as a measure to collect extra tax from consumers, has projected inflation at 12.8pc.

However, independent economists have projected that annual inflation would be in the range of 25pc to 30pc.

The meeting was informed that major drivers of inflation were global commodity and oil price hikes and an increase electricity and gas tariffs due to IMF conditions. The rupee’s devaluation has also contributed to inflation. However, administrative measures were required by the local administration to check hoarding.

The minister also directed the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) to share its data analysis report in every meeting and closely monitor the price index and ensure a fair projection so that an effective policy could be made to overcome the future crisis.

He also directed the PBS to regularly compare the difference in wholesale and retail prices of essential food items in different districts across the country in collaboration with the provinces, whereas the Ministry of Food and Industries will also be engaged in the exercise.

Published in Dawn, August 24th, 2022