ISLAMABAD, Sept 2: “This is unfair! You are charging too much from your regular customers; you have increased the price of almost every item,” Mrs Asmat Ali argued with the vegetable seller in Rawalpindi, against the prices he demanded for routine items.
She said that guests were coming to her house and she needed green chillies, tomatoes, lemon, and coriander, but the overall price is almost double compared to what it was before Eid.
The situation is the same all over the twin cities as the retailers, taking advantage of supply-demand gap, jacked up prices of almost all farm produce with tomatoes being sold up to Rs90 per kilogram.
Most of the shops are closed in Rawalpindi and Islamabad as many retailers have gone to their hometowns in Azad Kashmir, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to celebrate Eid with their families.
The wholesale fruits and vegetables market in I-11 is officially closed up to Friday, and those operating the business have increased the prices on the pretext that they too are buying them at higher rates.
The tomatoes were between Rs60 and Rs65 per kilogram at various retail markets of the twin cities prior to Eid, but it was between Rs80 and Rs90 on Friday.
"There is shortage of supply and I myself had to buy tomatoes in black market," said Gul Muhammad, vegetable retailer in Rawalpindi, "Besides, we cannot keep vegetables like tomatoes, green chillies and even coriander leaves for five days as these are perishable items."
However, the traders at wholesale market have disputed such claims and said that retailers should not be earning profits beyond certain limit.
"I have already proposed to the administration that the retail profits should be around 30 to 40 percent," said Rizwan Farooq, trader at the wholesale market, adding, "The reasonable retail price of tomatoes has to be between Rs60 and Rs65 keeping in view all the factors involved."
Similarly, some retailers were selling 250 gram lemon at Rs50 and the coriander leaves were not being offered free along with other vegetables on the grounds that it was in short supply.
The consumers have no option but to buy the expensive items. However, the retailer's bonanza will vanish from Sunday when the weekly bazaars will be offering stiff competition to them.
