LAHORE, Dec 14: Increase in the meat retail price has become inevitable in the wake of linking of the fee charged for the entry of animals to the city with the price in accordance with the Punjab Local Government Ordinance provisions.

Increase in the meat price is inevitable as the government is determined to charge the fee on the basis of purchase price of animals instead of the previous practice of charging Rs10 for the entry of a goat or a sheep and Rs90 for a buffalo or a cow to the city on the grounds that the new local government law does not allow charging the fee at a fixed rate.

The authorities are not ready to consider the argument that the fee for a lean goat or a sheep priced at Rs2,500 would increase to Rs75 and a cheap cow or a buffalo priced at Rs12,000 to Rs360 necessitating an increase in the mutton and beef prices of Rs150 and Rs60 per kg, respectively, which they had failed to enforce. They are glad over the idea of manifold increase in the revenue as a result of linking the fee with the purchase price of animals.

Town municipal officers of Allama Iqbal Town, Nishtar, Shalimar and Aziz Bhatti towns, the town officer (finance) of the Data Ganj Bakhsh Town and the town officer (revenue) of the Ravi Town met here on Tuesday to discuss the issue, and decided to go ahead with the plan of charging the fee on the purchase price of animals on the grounds that it was in accordance with the law, and was being charged in other cities.

Participants in the meeting presided over by AIT Nazim Sardar Adil Omar decided to recover the fee at the time of purchase of animals instead of entry to the market to avoid disputes on the price and award a fresh contract for its recovery for January-June 2005, after scrapping the recently-approved contract of Rs26.5 million.

They were of the view that the amount of the existing contract was like peanuts after linking of the fee with the price of animals. They estimated the income to increase to a minimum Rs120 million in the event of charging of fee on the price of the animals.