ISLAMABAD, Sept 7: The Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock has expressed concern over varying price of flour in the provinces and recommended to the Economic Coordination Committee of the cabinet headed by the prime minister to enforce uniform issue price of wheat across the country.

A ministry official told Dawn on Sunday that the flour price had increased to Rs600 per 20 kg in the past week in tribal areas and upper NWFP, Karachi and other urban areas in Sindh and parts of Balochistan while it was being sold at Rs300 in Punjab.

He said this kind of difference was unprecedented and it encouraged hoarding and unauthorised inter-provincial movement of flour. He said the ministry had recommended to Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to resolve the issue as early as possible, otherwise it could destabilise the food supply chain.

He said even in Punjab the flour price varied greatly.

The Punjab government had announced a Ramazan package for urban areas where about 20 per cent of the population lived. Under the package, flour was being provided at Rs300 per 20 kg. But the same quantity was being sold at Rs500-550 in rural areas.

According to him, an unrealistic price difference also exists between rural and urban areas in Sindh. He said people in Karachi were being fleeced indiscriminately. However, he said, it appeared that the rural Punjab was somehow subsidising the urban Punjab. The official said there was an acute shortage of flour in tribal areas and in the settled districts flour was selling at double the price when compared to urban areas in Punjab.

The ministry of food and agriculture also urged the prime minister to ensure uniformity in the issue price of wheat to mills across the country, either by providing subsidy to all people or by following the market price.

He said the Punjab government had reduced the issue price of wheat to flour mills from Rs750 per 40 kg to Rs560 from the beginning of Ramazan. But it was hardly sustainable because the province consumed 400,000 bags of 100kg a day, while the government was providing only 50,000 bags.