KARACHI, Jan 20: Despite a sharp decline in oil prices in the international market, prices of essential commodities in the city have increased, adding to the miseries of the masses.

The local government has not yet issued any new price lists of essential commodities to transfer the benefit of oil price cuts to the consumers. The government has also failed to get the present price lists implemented.

In a survey of local markets conducted on Tuesday it was observed that the prices of edible oil, wheat flour, sugar and ghee had increased while no official action was seen against big hoarders and profiteers.

People say that there is no check on retailers and wholesalers and they are selling the essential commodities against prices arbitrarily set by them.

A buyer at UP More Market said that sugar was selling at Rs27 per kilogramme till last month, but its price jumped and now it was selling at Rs44 per kg. He said sugar of inferior quality was selling at Rs42per kg.

He said the prices of cooking oil had shot up by Rs6 to Rs10 per litre, while price of red chilli had also increased Rs10 per kg.

It has also been learnt that essential commodities like sugar, ghee, flour and edible oil are also in short supply at many Utility Stores in the city.

“A Utility Store shopkeeper in Shadman area refused to give me sugar, ghee and cooking oil last Thursday, saying that he had run out of stock,” said Mr Nadeem, a resident of 11-A, North Karachi.

The shopkeeper told him that the stock had finished and he would have to wait for a few more days for supplies.

Mr Nadeem said if people were buying a 5kg tin of ghee from a Utility Store, they were also forced by the salespeople of the Utility Store to buy some other items as well, for example, custard powder, jam or anything else; otherwise, he said, one cannot buy anything from the Utility Stores.

A woman who was standing in a queue outside a Utility Store near Shafique More to buy wheat flour said that the quality of flour was very low. She said the bread made from this flour was of dark colour and of bad taste.

A buyer at North Karachi W-9 Market said that retailers were offering two types of commodities — number-one and number-two qualities at proportional prices.

“There is no quality control and price check at the wholesale and retail level,” he said. “We have never seen a crackdown on hoarders and profiteers,” he claimed. He said that local authorities had also failed to check prices of fresh milk in the city.

There was no hope that the increased prices of commodities would ever come down in the presence of ‘corrupt officials’, he lamented.

The EDO of enterprise and investment promotion, Dr Shahab Imam refused to comment on queries.—PPI