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Decline in essential commodities prices noticed

Recorder Report

Lahore: Price and Supply Board of Punjab, in its meeting which was held here on Thursday, has noticed visible decline in the prices of essential commodities.

The Chief Secretary, Punjab, Hafeez Akhtar Randhawa, presided over the meeting which was also attended by provincial secretaries of Food, Health, Agriculture and Industries Departments. It was also attended by the divisional commissioners and representatives of ghee, sugar and flour mills associations.

The meeting, while reviewing price and supply of the essential commodities, revealed that prices of chicken, potato, ghee and onion gradually declined during the last two months. However, sugar price significantly increased.

The meeting expressed satisfaction over the surplus stock of sugar with the sugar mills in the province and hoped that the mills will achieve their production target of 29 lakh tonnes.

It was further revealed that the sugar mills have procured sugarcane worth Rs. 9 billion out of which 60 percent payment has been made to the growers, while rest of the amount is being paid gradually.

The Price and Supply Board meeting was informed that due to favourable weather condition and addition of five percent cultivated area in the province, a record production of wheat crop was expected this year.

The Chief Secretary directed the concerned authorities to ensure prompt payment to the farmers, while procuring wheat. He further directed to ensure a close supervision on the check posts to curb wheat smuggling.

The meeting also evolved strategy to remove deficiencies in testing procedure of the samples of essential commodities. The chief secretary stressed the need for necessary training to the staff, deputed on collection of samples from markets.

The meeting also warned those ghee manufacturers who are not mentioning date of expiry and detail of ingredients on the tin and ghee packets.