KARACHI, Sept 19: Wheat flour prices in the metropolis are yet to show any decline despite an announcement by provincial Adviser on Food and Agriculture Murtaza Jatoi that the government had fixed the ex-mill price at Rs14 per kg, besides having increased flour mills’ quota by 50 per cent.

On Wednesday, a 10-kg bag of atta was selling at Rs190 to Rs210 in different areas of the city as against its pre-Ramazan price of Rs140. Many utility stores went out of atta stocks before noon and people forming long queues outside had to return in sheer disappointment.

DCO Javed Hanif said on Wednesday that the city government had not been authorised to reduce the atta rate to the level of ex-mill price as was done by the provincial government. Had the CDGK been authorised to enforce the ex-mill rate, it would have exercised the magisterial powers vested in its officials to bring down the atta price, he argued, indicating that a large number of flour mills and chakkis existed within the CDGK jurisdiction.

Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Pakistan Flour Mills Association, Sindh, Chaudhry Ansar Jawed, has rejected the allegation that the millers were in hoarding wheat flour. He also criticised the Sindh government for fixing “unrealistic rates” of wheat and flour.

He claimed that a “wheat export mafia” was behind the artificial shortage of the commodity. He was of the view that about 1.5 million tons of wheat would have to be imported immediately to overcome the crisis.—PPI