The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) has proposed a global concept of 'Farmers Super Market' to provide a platform to farmers to sell their commodities at affordable prices and monitoring of wholesalers by District Co-ordination Officers (DCOs) instead of retail level. It is learnt that the CCP has been tasked by the National Price Monitoring Committee (NPMC) to convene a meeting of the relevant federal ministries and provincial departments at the CCP to share and discuss its recommendations regarding the price monitoring mechanism in place in the country.
The NPMC meeting was held on Thursday, which was chaired by the Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and attended by Secretary Finance Waqar Masood Khan, CCP Chairperson Vadiyya Khalil, CCP Member Cartel & Trade Abuses and Legal Ikram Ul Haq Qureshi, CCP Director General Cartel & Trade Abuses Shaista Gilani and other high federal and provincial officials. Sources added that the CCP Chairperson briefed the committee on its innovative recommendations to improve the price monitoring mechanism and overcome the shortcomings in the existing system. During the meeting, the concept of introducing Farmers Super Market was discussed. It would provide a platform to the farmers to sell their commodities at reasonable prices in a clean and hygienic environment. Farmers Super Markets are operating in different countries and it is easy to monitor prices at the level of such markets. The buyers would also be able to purchase items at reasonable prices under a clean environment.
It has been discussed that the monitoring at the level of wholesalers is comparatively easy against retailers across the country. It is almost impossible to monitor each and every retailer by the DCOs. Therefore, the monitoring of wholesalers would automatically improve compliance at retail level. Moreover, prices are also linked with the quality of the sold items. The standards of quality should be worked out to judge the prices of the items in the market.
It was pointed out that there is a lack of co-ordination between the DCOs and proper utilisation of data of the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics is also needed. It has been decided that a working group would be establish which would co-ordinate with the CCP for finalisation of suggestions on the price monitoring mechanism. A press release of the Finance Ministry issued here Thursday sad that the National Price Monitoring Committee meeting was held here with Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar, Minister for Finance in the chair. The forum observed that despite floods the perishable and non-perishable items had seen stability in prices. Inflation remained low in FY15 and this trend is continuing in FY16, as July and August witnessed lowest rate of inflation in 12 years. The meeting reviewed the trend of inflationary indicators including the Consumer Price Index (CPI), Food, Non-Food, Core, Wholesale Price index (WPI) and Sensitive Price Index (SPI). CPI head line inflation increased by 1.7 percent on year-on-year basis in August 2015 as compared to 1.8 percent in the previous month and 7.0 percent in August 2014. Core inflation, measured by non-food non-energy CPI (Core NFNE) increased by 4.0 percent on Year on Year basis in August 2015 as compared to 4.1 percent in the previous month and 7.9 percent in August 2014. The meeting noted the rising trend in prices of pulses, particularly gram pulse, garlic, meat, mutton and milk and discussed measures to control the prices of these items.
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