ISLAMABAD, July 6: The prime minister’s committee on prices in its meeting chaired by Dr Salman Shah, Adviser to PM on Finance and Revenue, here on Wednesday reviewed the prices of essential commodities, food items and petroleum products.

The committee appreciated the bold measures taken by the government for allowing duty-free and liberal import of various food items to curb the rising trends and to provide relief to the masses.

The committee observed that due to liberal policy for the import of essential food items, the rising price trend of various commodities including onion, tomato, sugar, wheat flour and meat had been halted.

The meat and mutton had started reaching Karachi through sea routes at much cheaper rates, which was catering to the needs of hotels and big consumers.

The government is in contact with Indian authorities to open land route to facilitate import of livestock and was considering a proposal to expedite clearance by customs on the basis of pre-shipment certification from internationally recognized pre-shipment companies.

The duty-free import of sugar both raw and refined in any quantity was allowed by the government in line with the committee’s earlier decision to evaluate the entire supply chain from the grower to the consumer and eliminate inefficiencies and cartels.

It discussed the role of market committees in all the four provinces and functioning of wholesale markets identifying various factors and layers, which contribute to price buildup.

The best practices of international wholesale markets was also taken into consideration in which the producers have the opportunity to establish direct link with the markets and this supply chain cuts short the role of middleman to keep the prices at affordable level. The committee considered the ‘Safal Model’ of wholesale market in Banglore and asked the secretary Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock (Minfal) to present the wholesale markets modernization plans of provincial governments in the next meeting of the committee.

The committee also observes that the experience of weekly “Sunday Bazars” in various cities have proved very successful and if it goes down up to tehsil level, the essential items of daily use will be available to the consumers at much cheaper rates.

Dr Salman asked the Minfal to review the regulatory framework of the market committees in consultation with the provincial agriculture departments and propose changes for good governance, fair and transparent pricing, hygiene and health requirements etc., in the next meeting.

The ministry of petroleum in its presentation before the committee informed that the government was providing subsidy of more than Rs5 per litre on diesel.

The government was bearing most of the burden of rise in international prices of crude oil and petroleum products. The meeting asked the petroleum ministry to examine the possibilities of complete deregulation of the petroleum sector based on free and transparent competition and its impact on price mechanism and present its findings in the next meeting of the committee.—APP