KARACHI, July 21: With the holy month of Ramazan two months away, the prices of pulses and edible oil have started climbing up. On the other hand, some importers of black gram whole are said to be waiting to get Rs8 per kg subsidy as the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) is taking time because of confusion in the name of commodity.
Importers import the commodity by the name of ‘desi chic peas’ while the SBP, as per orders of June 12 of the ministry of industries, production and special initiatives, has laid down the procedure of Rs8 per kg subsidy on imported gram black whole.
Adviser to Karachi Wholesalers Grocers Association (KWGA), Anis Majeed said that the association had contacted the SBP and one of the officials told them that the SBP had sought clarification from the government over the name of the commodity.
He said that some eight to ten importers had submitted relevant documents to the bank some 10-15 days back after clearing their consignments from the customs in order to become eligible for the subsidy but so far there has been no progress.
More than 60 containers, carrying 25 tons each of black gram, had been imported during June. After April, a total of 200 containers had arrived loaded with black gram whole.
Even the SBP is reluctant to provide subsidy to those importers, who lodged their claims mentioning the name of the commodity as black gram whole, he said adding that the SBP circular had mentioned clearly that the whole process of getting subsidy will take just three days but so far nothing practical has happened.
According to the Economic Survey 2005-06, gram production has declined by 39.3 per cent during July-March 2005-06 to 527,000 tons from 868,000 tons in the same period of last year. The Survey linked the decline to less rains during the crop development stage.
Anis Majeed said that according to the association’s calculation, gram production had been just 350,000 tons and there were some 100,000--150,000 tons carryover stocks as against the annual consumption of 750,000 tons. May be the Economic Survey has combined the carryover stocks and the production figures to make it 527,000 tons, otherwise there had been big drop in gram production. As a result of low crop output, prices of gram pulse have been under pressure for the last few months. There was some decline in the wholesale rate by Rs2 to Rs3 per kg when the government had announced Rs8 per kg subsidy followed by awarding of tender by the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) to Indian traders last month. However, the wholesale rates again reversed to Rs36-38 from Rs 33-35 per kg following the Indian government ban on gram export. Consumers had only witnessed some relief in shape of price cut by Rs10 per kg in gram pulse at utility stores’ in June.
At the retail stage, the price of gram pulse (good quality) now ranges between Rs41-42 per kg as compared to Rs40 per kg on July 1, owing to delay in getting subsidy and very low local production.
Besides, decline in gram production, Pakistan is also facing production shortfall in other pulses. Production of masoor, mung and mash has declined to 22,400, 114,000 and 16,500 tons in July-March 2005-06, respectively, as compared to 26,000, 130,000 and 18,300 tons in the same period of 2004-05.
The price of masur has surged to Rs36 from Rs32 per kg on July 1, while mung price has increased to Rs65-66 from Rs60 per kg. Mash is selling at Rs70 as compared to Rs68 on July 1, secretary general Karachi Retail Grocers Group (KRGG) Farid Qureishi said adding that consumers had not seen any relief in price after the budget.
Besides, some domestic problems, market forces start flexing their muscles ahead of Ramazan by resorting to hoarding of commodities in order to make windfall in the holy month. Some traders and retailers have joined hands to make artificial increase in prices of various items before the holy month so that they could succeed in fixing higher rates for the price-list of various items to be announced by the City government.
Edible oil prices have already started shooting up ahead of Ramazan owing to increase in palm oil prices in the world market. So far, some producers of 16 kg tins of ghee and cooking oil have raised the price to Rs890 as compared to Rs800 last month. However, leading branded ghee and cooking oil makers have yet to pass on the impact of rising palm oil prices to the consumers.
