KARACHI, Sept 29: With Ramazan only 25 days away, the city government is again committing the mistake it made last year by not arranging in time the meetings of wholesalers, manufacturers, importers and retailers to evaluate the stock positions of essential items, besides preparing a strategy to control prices.
Last year the price regulators had given a late call to the the market people — just 10 days before the holy month. As a result, the consumers had to take a costly ride as they paid 10 to 15 per cent more on the edible items.
Clever manufacturers and dealers have already become active and have increased the prices of some items like sugar, flour and milk powder so that they could easily exert their influence during the price-fixing meetings. In case the government asks them to give discounts, they would love to accept the ‘request’ as they have already made profits after selling the items to wholesalers and retailers at much higher rates.
Sugar prices have gone up to Rs20 per kg from Rs19 per kg in the current month despite claims by millers of retaining over a million tons of the stock from 2002-2003 crushing season. This hike on their part was followed by a sharp increase by the flour millers.
The makers of Nido milk powder have also raised the price to Rs216 for a 1,000kg pack from Rs207 a few days ago. Retailers, wholesalers and manufacturers have said they have received calls nor faxes from the provincial and the city governments for the pre-Ramazan meetings.
The Karachi Retail Grocers Group (KRGG) had proposed to the city government a month ago that the prices should be fixed for at least 45 days, that is 15 days before Ramazan plus 30 days during it.
Consumers are of the view that the government’s efforts to check prices in Ramazan ultimately prove futile because the market forces actually push up the prices ahead of the all-important month. The government should check the local stocks and their prices, and also import prices of some commodities, at least one month before the holy month so that the manoeuvring techniques of wholesalers and importers could be checked.
The Chairman of the Karachi Wholesale Grocers Group (KWGG), Anis Majeed, confirmed that his association was yet to receive a call from the authorities for pre-Ramazan meetings. He claimed that gram pulse prices were expected to remain stable in Ramazan owing to surplus stocks of 85,000 tons.
Pakistan had exported 60,000 to 65,000 tons of gram pulse to India and Bangladesh in the last six months. Pakistan produced 750,000 tons of gram pulse this year, leaving a surplus stock of 150,000 tons. Total consumption of gram pulse stands at 600,000 tons.
The wholesale price of number 1 and number 2 quality gram pulse is Rs22.50 and Rs21.5 per kg respectively. Prices of moong (whole, washed and chhilka) range from Rs20 to Rs23 per kg, while price of masoor (imported from Canada and Australian) ranges between Rs27 to Rs32 per kg, depending on the quality.
Maash from Burma is selling at Rs17 to Rs20 per kg at wholesale level while pickles from local crop is priced at Rs24 to Rs25 per kg, he said.
A total of 29,319 tons of pulses have been imported in July-August as compared to 107,537 tons during the same period of last fiscal, showing a fall of 72 per cent in quantity. This shows that either the market has enough stocks which had led the importers to go slow or the importers have been reluctant to book fresh orders owing to higher international prices.
Ghee and cooking oil millers have already geared up efforts to increase the imports of palm and soybean oil, a basic raw material used in processing and making of ghee and cooking oil. Imports in July-August 2003 stood at 213,488 tons as compared to 199,929 tons — up by seven per cent — while soybean oil imports stood at 8,652 tons as compared to 3,435 tons in July-August of 2002, an increase of 151 per cent.
Vegetable and fruit dealers have also not received any call from the city government for the pre-Ramazan meetings, the president of Falahi Anjuman Wholesale Vegetable Markets, New Subzi Mandi — Haji Shahjehan — said. The wholesale prices of onion and tomato have already come under pressure owing to end of Balochistan crop, he said.
Onion prices at wholesale level ranged between Rs7.5 to Rs8 per kg while tomato prices were hovering between Rs13 to Rs15 per kg. However, retail markets are yet to see the impact of the rise at wholesale level, he said.
He said the Sindh crops of both the commodities were starting from next month. He added that it was usually seen that prices of the commodities fluctuated in the end or start of the crop. Hopefully, prices would stabilize when the crop started.
Potato, he said, was surplus in the country, selling at Rs2.5 to Rs3 per kg at wholesale levels. There would be no price hike in potato in Ramazan as the country had an estimated 50 per cent stocks available in cold storages.
Two years back, the city government had been given the powers to check profiteering after the dissolution of the Bureau of Supply and Prices. However, price regulators had virtually failed to control profiteering, especially in fruits and vegetables, despite regular visits of town nazims to various markets and setting up of a public helpline — number 135.
The city government was unable to impose on-the-spot fines on the profiteers due to abolition of executive magistrates’ offices. However, city government teams had issued challans of fines against the shopkeepers so that they could appear before the judicial magistrate.
The city government must have learned some lessons in the last two years to handle better the shopkeepers and retailers. The time to take stock of the situation and come out with effective steps to curb overcharging was running out, said some of its critics.
But the officials are yet to decide as to which authority would be given powers to control prices. There are reports that the city government wants nazims and counsellors to be given these powers.
