Sugar was cheaper in October

Nobody seems to have told the Federal Bureau of Statistics that sugar is getting pricier by the day. It appears, in fact, they have been duped by statistics that are inaccurate beyond proportions.
The bureaus latest data on inflation reveals that wholesale sugar prices fell by 7.81 percent on a month-on-month basis in October. Although this is surprising to note, one can still perhaps assume that millers, in their profound respect for the apex court started selling sugar at Rs40 per kilogram, which enabled wholesalers to price the commodity accordingly lower in October.
But here comes a more shocking observation: FBS says retail sugar prices fell 6.51 percent during October 2009 over September 2009. It makes one wonder, where is the bureau looking??? Perhaps, the location of those rare outlets should be made public so the masses can benefit.
Giving the bureau a benefit of the doubt, perhaps it is safe to assume that the actual fault lies in the methodology of price observation, which, it appears, requires only noting down the price from official list instead of finding out the actual transaction price.
A post-purchase poll of sugar consumers would have easily revealed that retail sugar prices rose from an average Rs50-52 in September to hover between Rs60-Rs70 in October, largely due to unavailability of the commodity, according to sources speaking on the condition of anonymity.
This factual inaccuracy in case of sugar makes one doubt the correctness of other data as well - data of the commodities which are not as sensitive items as sugar, flour, milk etc. So in essence, these reliability issues, which in turn impact economic policies, call for an immediate restructuring of the statistical department.
As for sugar, it is has become one of rarest commodity of our times, with prices, according to anecdotal evidence, reaching as high as Rs85 per kilogram in some of the countless black markets across the country - topping even the price of to-be imported sugar, which is expected around Rs65, according to TCP sources.
To those lawmakers who are entangled elsewhere - the NRO and Gilgit-Baltistan elections - a careful reminder here, won be too much: it was just a fifty paisa increase in sugar prices that sparked the campaign against Field Marshal Ayub Khan - eventually putting him out of office.