KARACHI, Nov 7: Retailers charged up to 100 per cent more than the actual rates of fruits on the first day of Ramazan on Thursday in the absence of any checks on profiteering by the city administration.
A survey of various markets showed that the city administration had virtually failed to stop fruit sellers from fleecing people.
With no fear of being monitored by any authority, most of the fruit sellers enjoyed a field day by keeping aside the official price list, and kept making money throughout the day.
Many retailers were also seen overcharging people while the authorized price list was on display at their shops.
City government officials at most of the complaint centres established nearby main markets remained absent from work, leaving complainants bewildered.
Many retailers, when asked by this correspondent to show the list, said they could not get it in the morning, while some others said the list had not been issued that day.
The fixed retail rate for guava was at Rs20 per kilogram, but vendors charged people between Rs25 and Rs35 a kilogram. In Tariq Road areas, retailers were seen charging Rs50 per kilogram for guava from Malir.
The rate of the first-grade banana was fixed at Rs22 per dozen, but retailers were charging Rs25-30 per dozen. Likewise, the official rate for golden apple (No. 1 quality) was Rs36 per dozen but it was being sold at Rs40-50 per dozen.
Despite government’s plans to curb price hike, profiteers are manipulating market conditions to their advantage.
Poor consumers are compelled to buy costly fruits, which are specially eaten in Ramazan to regain energy lost during the day. As retailers know that the demand for fruits picks up in this month, they fleece people at will.
A fruit buyer in Tariq Road told Dawn that there was no check on profiteering and no complaint centre had been set up there. Similar complaints were received from other parts of the city. Some complainants said that 30 complaint centres for the megacity were not enough to check profiteering.
It was learnt during a survey of groceries in a market that shopkeepers in a number of areas had not received the official price list issued by the Karachi Retail Grocers Group (KRGG). Being the first day of Ramzan, consumers bought big quantity of groceries in the absence of the official price list.
Representatives of traders, however, assured city Nazim Naimatullah Khan at a meeting here on Thursday that they would not allow overcharging and would help the administration curb profiteering. The Nazim warned action against those overcharging consumers.
