Prices of essential kitchen items increase

Prices of most of the essential kitchen items have registered an increase during this week over the corresponding last week, a survey carried out by Business Recorder revealed. The survey noted that the prices of live chicken, loose tea, tomatoes, potatoes, live chicken, chicken meat, mutton, beef, washed Dal Mong, mustard oil, washed Dal Mash, garlic and red chillies registered an increase in prices.
While the prices of Masoor Dal, gram, vegetables including onions, peas and other items remained unchanged during the week. Live chicken prices increased by Rs 15 per kg, chicken meat price increased by Rs 25 per kg, tomato price by Rs 10 per kg and orange price by Rs 20-40 per dozen depending on the quality. During the week, price of oranges increased from Rs 60 per dozen to Rs 80-100 per dozen, price of apples from Rs 80 per kg to Rs 100 per kg and guava from Rs 50 per kg to Rs 60 per Kg.
A few weeks back, the City District Administration Rawalpindi had fixed the prices of essential kitchen items and issued price list to all the shopkeepers, but the shopkeepers did not follow the official price list. The shopkeepers said that the official rate list 'is not logical'.
This correspondent visited some of the market places of twin cities including wholesale and retail markets and found mutton being sold at Rs 450-500 per kg against the official rate of Rs 350 per kg and beef at Rs 250 per kg against Rs 180 per kg. Similarly, Dal Channa was available at Rs 75 per kg against the official price of Rs 70 per kg, Dal Masoor at Rs 125 per kg against Rs 114 per kg, Maash at Rs 150-170 per kg against Rs 140-160 per kg, Dal Moong at Rs 150 per kg against Rs 140 per kg and rice at Rs 100-120 per kg against Rs 90-100 per kg.
Also, Milk was available at Rs 60 per litre against the official price of Rs 45 per litre and yoghurt at Rs 55-Rs 60 per kg against Rs 50 per kg. "Meat is getting out of the reach of the common man and the government has also failed to control the price of grains," said Imtiaz Shah, a shopper at Narankari Bazaar. He said the price hike had badly affected the life of the people.
All Pakistan Jamiatul Quresh (Meat Welfare Association) President Khursheed Ahmed Qureshi said butchers had rejected the official price of mutton and beef as the administration had fixed meat prices without consulting butchers. Qureshi admitted that mutton was being sold at Rs 450-500 per kg, adding there was an acute shortage of livestock. He said they were purchasing a goat weighing 10 kg for Rs 5,000 and it is not possible for them to sell mutton at Rs 350 per kg. He said if the government was really interested in bringing down the price of mutton and beef it should ban the export of animals and meat.
Soap manufacturers, also, increased the prices of different brands of soap by Rs 3 per pack or have reduced the weight of the soap, shopkeepers told Business Recorder. While the medicine traders at Bohar Bazaar (medicine wholesale market Rawalpindi) informed this scribe that the medicine manufacturers are also all set to increase the medicine prices across the board. They said that the industry has requested the government to allow an increase in drug prices and the authorities, including health ministry, have recommended a seven percent increase in drug prices.
During the survey, most of the people complained that the shopkeepers are overcharging them. Complaints were also registered about the sale of lower quality and adulterated items at a-grade rates. The items which recorded decrease in their average prices during the week included LPG (11kg cylinder), sugar, gur and washed gram pulse.