Come Ramzan and every other person seems to be in a different mood altogether. The poor find options to feed themselves and their families and even the homeless are welcomed to iftars.

The government comes up with certain Ramzan packages. The declared objective behind such moves is that the government wants to provide monetary incentives to people, wherever possible, so that they can focus on religious obligations. This also gives political mileage to the government if it is able to fulfill the promises it has made.

It was before the start of Ramzan that the ministry of water and power announced that there would be no load-shedding during sehr and iftar and unscheduled load shedding would not be tolerated. The maximum load shedding hours were set at six hours in urban and eight in rural areas and special funds were spared for buying fuel for power producing plants. This was one of the relief packages.

But what followed was different. The power generation system collapsed due to sudden increase in demand due to rise in the mercury level. The demand for electricity rose to 21,000MW in the start against the maximum power generation of around 16,000MW, leading to mass protests across the country.

The federal government failed to fulfill this promise and put the blame on weather conditions and the past government. The concerned ministry hopes the crisis will not resurface again during the month.

The federal government has also announced a subsidy of Rs 1.3 billion under Ramzan package to provide essential commodities at reduced rates. This subsidy is being paid against the purchase of 18 essential food items, such as sugar, wheat, ghee, etc at the utility stores across the country since June 16.

Inayatullah Daula, General Manager at Utility Stores Corporation (USC), tells TNS that these commodities will be available at 5,600 utility stores across the country. On the complaints about quality of products at the stores, he says they have "introduced a fool proof quality control system that ensures products are of high quality".

Even the very outlook, interior and managements systems at these stores have been revamped to give a new look to them. Daula adds that in addition to the 18 subsidised products, they are "selling around 1,000 other items at reduced prices".

He says they have bargained with vendors and have earned volume discounts on purchase of products in huge quantities. The benefits of these discounted purchases, he says, are also being passed on to the consumers. He says the plan is to set up stores at the union council level in every city but it is not possible in some remote locations due to non-accessibility.

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The Punjab government has announced Rs 5 billion Ramzan package to supply essential items to the masses at subsidised rates in Ramzan Bazars. The subsidy of Rs 3 billion is being spent on the purchase of flour and to ensure that a 20 kg flour bag is available for Rs 130 less than the normal price. Under the initiative, the department of agriculture has opened 335 fair price shops whereas 147 green channels have also been launched for direct sale of their products.

Critics claim that the chief minister is only interested in ensuring prices at Ramzan Bazars while there is no control on ever-increasing prices of food products in the country. Besides, they say, the cost of carrying out inspections and maintaining a huge number of civil officers to monitor these bazars makes the exercise unfeasible. The setting up of 12 helipads to facilitate CMs’ surprise inspection visits of Ramzan Bazaars has also been criticised.

Another government sector that has offered incentives in Ramzan is the tourism sector. "The tourists will be able to avail discounts up to 40 per cent on room rents at the motels owned by the Tourism Development Corporation of Pakistan (TDCP)," says Tayyab Mir, Manager, Tourism Information Center at TDCP. He tells TNS that the corporation has announced major discounts at its state-of-the-art motels situated at prime locations of the country.

Mir says it is a trend in the country that people prefer to stay at home with their families during Ramzan but this trend is changing by the day. He says the discount package announced by TDCP is also an effort to bring people to these beautiful tourist destinations in the warm months of June and July. He, however, adds that the discount offer will be withdrawn during Eid days.

In this context, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has announced 20 per cent discount on domestic travel from June 19, 2015 to July 14, 2015. This offer is applicable on travelling in economy plus, and business classes. There is no Ramzan discount on international flights as international travelers are already enjoying discount of 15 per cent and 35 per cent respectively on economy and business class. These discounts were announced much before the advent of Ramzan.

PIA spokesman, Ather Awan, tells TNS that the intending travelers have been provided a cheaper option to travel by air during the month. The minimum one-way fare between Lahore and Karachi, he says, "has come down to Rs 7,900 from Rs 11,500 and now people who otherwise travel by train may like to travel by PIA." The discount offer will not be available on Eid days as there would be lots of passengers desirous of boarding local PIA flights.