KARACHI, Feb 27: Despite the fact that the milk retailers association has filed a case against the city government in the Sindh High Court and the decision is still pending, all retailers are openly charging Rs32 for a litre of fresh milk and Rs46 per kg for yogurt compared to the previous price of Rs30 per litre and Rs44 per kg.

In many areas retailers are charging Rs34 per litre for fresh milk and Rs48 per kg for yogurt. The city government had fixed official retail rate at Rs28 per litre and Rs26 as the wholesale rate.

All retailers were charging Rs30 per litre for fresh milk against the official Rs28 per litre rate before going to court against the city government.

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on February 15 issued notices to the city, provincial and federal governments and milk producers in a petition moved by the retailers against the fixation of milk price at Rs28 per litre and restrained the respondents from taking coercive action in the meantime.

The Chairman All Karachi Milk Retailers Welfare Association (AKMRWA), Hafiz Mohamamd Nisar voiceferously said an impression had been created that the retailers had increased the rates soon after filing the case in the high court. He said 50 per cent of the retailers had already increased their rates to between Rs32 to Rs34 per litre before going to court. “The majority of the retailers are selling fresh milk at Rs32 per litre and there is hardly any retailer demanding Rs34 per litre,” he added.

He said that the AKMRWA in its petition had already pointed out that the retailers could not sell milk at the price fixed by the city government when they are getting it at Rs32 per litre from the wholesalers. “We have approached the courts for our

protection as retailers cannot sustain any further losses by selling milk at lower prices after buying at higher rates.” He also demanded that the city government take the wholesalers and dairy farmers to task and asked why had the city government not taken the dairy farmers/wholesalers’ price hike seriously.

A city government official said as the court was yet to take a decision, the CDGK could not take any legal action against the retailers.

Meanwhile the city government has also held meetings with the representatives of companies selling milk in tetra packs regarding their production costs but with no results. According to reports, tetra pack milk has only 3.5 per cent fat content while fresh milk contains between five to seven per cent fat. Surprisingly, no one has asked the tetra pack milk producers about the mark difference in fat percentage or the prices they charge for their products.