ISLAMABAD: The National Price Monitoring Committee (NPMC) directed provincial and district administrations to proactively monitor the prices of chicken and edible oil in order to ensure smooth supply at fair prices across the country.
The NPMC meeting was held at the Finance Division to review the price trend of essential commodities especially wheat flour, eggs, chicken, sugar, and edible oil during the last week.
Secretary Ministry of Finance briefed NPMC about the weekly Sensitive Price Index (SPI) that increased by 0.5 percent. The committee observed a decline in prices of wheat, sugar, tomatoes, onion, eggs and potatoes during the week.
The chief secretaries from respective provincial governments updated NPMC about availability of sufficient stocks of wheat and average per day release by the provinces which were stable throughout the country.
The NPMC also directed Secretary Food, Balochistan and MD PASSCO to make an immediate arrangement for lifting 20,000MT wheat from PASSCO to ensure steady supply of wheat flour in the province.
The NPMC urged the provincial governments and departments concerned for making consolidated and coordinated efforts to avoid hoarding, black marketing and smuggling to ensure uninterrupted supply of basic commodities at affordable prices across the country.
The meeting was attended by the representatives of the Ministry of Industries and Production, Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of National Food Security and Research, provincial administrations, PASSCO, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, Competition Commission of Pakistan, Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and senior officers of the Finance Division.
