LAHORE, Sept 18: The wheat and flour market on Tuesday started easing throughout the province, but not before officially increasing the flour base price by Rs15 per 20kg bag. The new ex-mill price has been fixed at Rs285.

A food official said the department did not want the ex-mill price to go beyond Rs275 but was constrained due to market factors.

According to him, the department only supplemented wheat supply while the millers had to make bulk of their wheat purchases from the open market. “Hence, they cannot be made to fix price on the basis of official wheat price.”

He admitted that despite official claims of bringing the price down to pre-hike level, price had actually gone up by Rs15 to Rs20 per bag. “The new base price now carries official approval.”

Food Secretary Ahmad Yar Khan said that flour availability had improved during the last two days and hoped that the market would be stable by Wednesday. “The department is not only offering additional wheat (over 17,000 tons a day) but also tracking flour movement in the province,” he told Dawn.

Departmental and district government employees, according to him, have been deputed at the mills to keep record of flour movement. By doing so, the government wanted to ensure grinding of the entire wheat released by it.

“The government is focused at improving the supply chain mechanism, which has been disrupted by certain forces. If these forces do not behave now, the government will crack down on them indiscriminately,” he warned.

Food Director Arif Anwer Baloch claimed that the market had eased by 35 per cent on the second day of additional wheat releases. The department started releasing extra wheat on Monday and the flour reached the market today (Tuesday).

Talking about increase in base price, he said that first official priority was to flood the market and ensure availability. “Once this is done, we will consider the second step of controlling the price as well,” he said.

According to traders, the wheat price came down by Rs30 to Rs35 per 40kg in many parts of the province on Tuesday and might slide further by another five to seven per cent, depending on the location, in next few days. But, it certainly would not come to pre-hike level of Rs475 per 40kg.

On Tuesday, the Lahore market came down to Rs570, Rawalpindi Rs580, Gujranwala to Rs550 and most of the southern belt to Rs 540.

“Problem with the government is its misplaced belief in its ability to maneuver everything under the sun to its liking,” says Shabir Ahmad from Sheikhupura Grain Market. “Even now, after the huge crisis, the government officials have failed to realise the basic fact that the country does not have wheat and it will never be able to bring prices down to pre-hike level.”