ISLAMABAD: The price of cooking oil and vegetable ghee Friday surged by Rs40 per liter/kg, reaching the maximum price of Rs399 and Rs409 respectively.
According to the industry officials, the price of Tier-I brands reached Rs392 to 399 of vegetable ghee of different brands and Rs400 to 409 of cooking oil. Following the top tier brands, Tier-II, III and PATA FATA-based manufactures also increased the prices of their products owing to the growing international prices of edible oil.
Now the price of Tier-II ghee brands has reached Rs360 per kg and that of oil Rs370 per liter. The Tier-III ghee prices touched the levels of Rs320 per kg and Rs330 per liter of cooking oil. The PATA, FATA-based ghee and cooking oil prices raised the prices to Rs280 and 290 per kg/liter respectively.
Currently, almost 350 different brands are producing cooking oil and vegetable ghee in the country while the Tier-I brands are having a market share of almost 12 per cent.
The prices of edible oils all over the world have seen an unprecedented surge due to constraints in the supply chain and its diversion towards the bio-fuel. The phenomenon is not Pakistan-specific but prevails globally. Pakistan falls amongst most distressed countries since its local oilseed crop meets only 10 per cent of national demand. Thus it imports 90 per cent of edible oil to meet the national demand which hovers over 4.5 million metric tons per annum.
Chairman Pakistan Vanaspati Manufacturers Association (PVMA) Tariqullah Sufi said the industry was fully cognizant of the prevailing situation, which was indeed very unfortunate. Due to this enormous increase in prices, not only the duties/tax component has gone up but it also further compromised the cash flow situation of the industry.
Chairman PVMA said 100 percent sales tax and income tax was waived off on import of edible oil by units located in tax exempt areas (FATA and PATA), which sizably reduced the revenue of national exchequer and on the other end disturbed the import pattern of units located in taxable areas, besides creating uncertainty in market sentiments.
Meanwhile, the prices of tomatoes, potatoes and 22 other items have seen an increase across the country.
According to the weekly report released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS), inflation in the country has increased by 12.66%, while the rate of inflation was recorded at 0.2% last week.
The bureau, in the report, said as of last week, 22 items — including tomatoes, potatoes, ghee, mutton, and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cylinders — have become more expensive.
Per the weekly report, a domestic cylinder of LPG witnessed a price hike of Rs43.96 per kg, ghee prices were increased by Rs2.99 per kg, while and mutton prices rose by Rs4.58 per kg.
The report further showed that in the last one week, the price of tomatoes went up by Rs10.67 per kg, while the price of potatoes was raised by 49 paisa per kg. While the prices of 22 items saw an increase over the last week, 10 items saw a decrease in their costs. The weekly report showed that the average price of sugar fell by Rs6.72 to settle at Rs100.33 per kg. Similarly, eggs became cheaper by Rs6.65 per dozen, while a 20 kg bag of flour became cheaper by Rs11.5 per dozen. Meanwhile, prices of various items at utility stores have also skyrocketed, with the price of cooking oil reaching Rs110 per liter after an increase of Rs14.