A new wave of inflation has gripped the urban parts of the country in the post-Eidul Fitr week putting up challenges for the price control mechanism of the provincial governments, but more to the buying power of consumers. The commodities, putting holes in the pockets of the consumers are chicken, onion, flour, ghee, sugar and lemon. Provincial governments appear clueless about the market working as the retail price of chicken meat has increased to Rs620-670 per kg from Rs600-640 in the pre-Eid week. Retailers have come up with the usual excuse of short supply and high demand in the wake of the Eid festivity.
Not only the clean meat, but the rate of live poultry birds has also increased to Rs400-430 per kg against Rs370 in the last week of Ramazan. Retailers also blame the powerful lobby of the poultry farmers for manipulating the prices, adding that price control authorities only target the small-time retailers and spare the suppliers and farmers. A similar trend of price hikes has been observed in flour and sugar. A whopping Rs11 and Rs13 per kg hike have been observed in the prices of flour and sugar.
Inflation rates, according to experts, are going to touch a record-breaking 30 per cent if the reports of increasing the price of petrol are materialized. Finance Minister Miftah Ismael has said on the record that the terms of the previous International Monetary Fund agreement stipulated a price of Rs245 per litre of petrol. A political government cannot afford such cruel enforcement of price hikes. True that the government already accruing a loss of Rs30 per liter of petrol, which the previous government of Imran Khan had laid by avoiding sales tax and applying a subsidy on petroleum price. Moreover, the international market is also hitting the roof because of the Russia-Ukraine war. As the government is in the process of making the new budget, now is the time to devise a new mechanism to put more burdens on those who can afford it and give relief to those who really deserve it. A sane way is to introduce targeted subsidies, which benefit those who fall in the category. Moreover, local manufacturers and farmers should be given as much relief as possible so that more and more crops and local items hit the market.
