Minister of State for Finance, Omar Ayub Khan said daily farmers markets for the provision of low-priced edibles food items, would start operating within two months. He told APP that the government had announced the establishment of daily farmers markets in the Budget 2007-08 to facilitate and benefit both the producers and the people specially the poor.
Omar Ayub Khan said that the decision of establishment of 5,000 utility stores across the country and the subsidy for the USC was meant to facilitate and benefit the poor segment of the society.
He said the implementation of the subsidy on various food and other items at utility sores had come into force from the next day of the announcement of the Budget 2007-08.
Khan said the government had announced a people-friendly budget and that was why the Opposition has nothing to criticise it, but only doing criticism for the sake of criticism.
He said that he had visited the utility stores and found prices according to the subsidies announced by the government in the budget. The Minister of State for Finance said that people had expressed their satisfaction over the quality and prices of the items, including the edible items being sold at the utility stores.
"We want to benefit the people specially the poor and the subsidy announced by the government would definitely provide relief to them", he added.
During his visit to utility stores, the consumers told him that they were getting relief of Rs300 to Rs400 on the prices per month on the items purchased from the utility stores as compared to open market, he said.