A meeting of the National Price Monitoring Committee (NPMC) has directed the Ministry of National Food Security and Research to formulate a strategy for the provision of storage infrastructure for improving supply chain of perishable food items.

The weekly meeting to review the prices in the country presided over by the Minister for Finance and Revenue, Shaukat Tarin, was informed by the Economic Adviser on the monthly CPI and weekly SPI inflation and maintained that prices of perishable food items and non-perishable food items have shown significant decline year-on-year and month-on-month basis.

The NPMC was updated on the prices of wheat flour, which marked a continuous decline in the country for the last five weeks, and subsequently, it discussed the sowing situation of wheat in the country. The meeting showed satisfaction on the progress made in this regard in all the four provinces.

The NPMC was briefed on the sugar prices and its stock position in the country and was apprised about increase in the prices of pulses, rice, eggs, and chicken was attributed to ‘seasonal factor’.

The NPMC was informed that the prices of onion have marked decrease as compared to its price three years earlier.

The meeting discussed the demand and supply of fertiliser in the country and directed the Ministry of Industries and Production to import fertiliser as soon as possible to meet the rising demand and to maintain stability in the prices.

The NPMC was briefed on the availability of essential goods at subsidised rates at the Sastaa and Sahulat Bazaars across the country.

Finance Minister Tarin commended the efforts of the Government of the Punjab, the KP, the Islamabad administration in providing key items at discounted prices through arranging Sastaa Bazaars, and also expressed satisfaction on the availability of essential items at low rates in Sastaa Bazaars in Sindh and Balochistan.

In his concluding remarks, the finance minister underscored the efforts being made for keeping the prices of essential items in check and measures to ensure smooth supply of essential commodities throughout the country.

This story was first published in Business Recorder on Jan 6, 2022.