Kiryana merchants' issue: LCCI asks DCO to convene price fixation body meeting

The Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has urged the District Co-ordination Officer (DCO) to convene Price Fixation Committee meeting at the earliest, as officers of the district government are creating undue troubles for the Kiryana merchants on prices issue. The LCCI Senior Vice President Kashif Younus Meher was talking to a delegation of Kiryana Merchants Association (KMA) called on him on Thursday. The delegation was led by LCCI former president Bashir A Buksh.
The KMA informed LCCI that there are 30,000 kiryana merchants in the city and all are being forced to sell their goods as per government price list that is quite low in comparison with the prices in the wholesale market. They said that since no meeting of price fixation committee had been convened in the last eight months and during this period the prices in the wholesale market have jumped on higher side while the retailers are being forced to sell their goods as per government price list which is quite unjustified.
The merchants said that almost a year ago there was a practice that the government facilitates a monthly meeting of retailers and wholesalers in the city and both sides were used to sell their goods on agreed prices with 10 per cent profit margin under the vigil of the authorities but since no meeting took place, the difference in the government price list and the prices in the whole sale market is very wide. Therefore, there is a need that the DCO should intervene in to the matter and provide some relief to the small businesses as registration of cases against the small shopkeepers on the prices issue has not only causing unrest but also leading to the closure of businesses. They said that on the one hand the government wants to bring down the graph of unemployment and claims promoting entrepreneurship while on the other is creating undue troubles for the businessmen.