President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum (PBIF) Mian Zahid Hussain has said the government should consider establishing discount stores across the country to provide necessary food and non-food items to masses of reasonable prices. Federal and Provincial governments should take steps to control price hike which had taken tool on the masses struggling for survival, he said. He said prices of necessitates were skyrocketing which has made life of poor miserable.
He said that despite reduced oil and grain prices the imports of those items had surged by 18 percent in the first eight months of this fiscal. The share of petroleum and food in the annual import bill had reached to 32 percent which was disturbing as it would widen the trade deficit, he added. The Veteran Business Leader said that import of LNG had jumped by 144 percent while import of liquefied petroleum gas had increased by 45 percent in the first eight months.
During the period palm oil worth 1.18 billion dollars, other food items worth 1.38 billion dollars, pulses worth 600 million dollars and tea worth 362 million dollars was imported, he added. The import of machinery including generators, office equipment, textile, construction and electrical goods has increased by 42 percent to 7.81 billion dollars. The import of mobile phones and telecom equipment was reduced due to additional duty imposed by the government recently. Mian Zahid Hussain said that State Bank had recently announced some steps to reduce imports of unnecessary items but more should be done to control trade deficit.
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