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Tuesday March 19, 2024

Call to check inflation, outages in Ramazan

By Our Correspondent
April 24, 2018

LAHORE: Controlling price-hike and power outages in Ramazan will be a big challenge for the government and to handle it both public and business community should cooperate with the government institutions besides effective measures needed to protect the public lives and assets.

These views were expressed by the experts in Jang Economic Session on ‘what will be situation of price-hike and power outages in Ramazan’. The panellists were Mian Usman, Kamal Amjad, Fazal Ahmed, Mohsin Bhatti, Ashraf Bhatti and Mian Yousaf. The session was hosted by Sikandar Lodhi.

Mian Usman said the Punjab government is committed to protect the public from price-hike and power outages during Sehar and Iftar. He said comprehensive mechanism was made to provide relief to public in the holy month while price control committee will effectively act against overcharging by making surprise visits to markets. He said meeting with big traders was underway for price fixation while major complaints always received on overcharging on fruits and vegetables for which auction and transportation of it from wholesale market will be monitored.

He called for public support by purchasing at official rates only and register complaints on the given numbers while the government has announced Rs11 billion subsidies on flour which reduced the price of 20kg bag to Rs500 and 10kg to Rs250.

Kamal Amjad said price-hike in Ramazan is a serious issue as demand increases and profiteers exploit the public. He suggested that the public should also follow the real spirit of the holy month and adopt simplicity to control the price-hike.

He called for a crackdown on hoarders besides creating awareness among public about Ramazan spirit. He demanded regulation in edibles selling markets. Fazal Ahmed said that new power plants installed by the government will reduce the power outages impact this summer and Ramazan but the power distribution companies outdated transmission lines can cause prolonged power outages.

He said if distribution companies system were not computerised the situation would not improve as effective reforms can only bring change. Mohsin Bhatti said the seriousness of the government actions before Ramazan was invisible while effective measures were required instead of tall claims.

He said prices of perishable items were already on the rise which will further increase in Ramazan. He believed the effective magistrate system was only solution to artificial price-hike, besides protecting the growers’ exploitation by the middlemen.

Ashraf Bhatti said that devaluation of currency caused inflation while only exporting sector was benefited but economy did not come out of critical situation. He said artificial price-hike was higher than the real inflation while every vendor was looting the public unabated. He called for timely measures to give relief to public in Ramazan.

Mian Yousaf said the subsidy on flour was a good decision which will ensure provision of cheap flour to public. He said that subsidy should be given to vegetable and fruit growers to reduce the prices. He called for a crackdown on hoarders to control artificial inflation.