Islamabad_The Utility Stores Corporation (USC) has increased the prices of sugar, ghee, and flour for consumers including beneficiaries of the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP), after the outgoing government removed the subsidy on these essential commodities.
The price of a 10 kg bag of flour has increased by Rs200, sugar by Rs30, and ghee by Rs53 per kg.
This increase in prices surprisingly comes despite the fact that the government had raised the subsidy for the USC from Rs30 billion to Rs35 billion in the ongoing fiscal year’s budget.
The only relief that awaits the consumers is the Prime Minister’s Azadi package for BISP beneficiaries that will start from August 11. Under it, a 10 kg flour bag will be available at Rs648, and there will be a discount of Rs25 per kg on rice and pulses.
Adding insult to injury, the consumers also have to deal with shortage of goods at utility stores. Citizens who wait in queues for hours to buy subsidized items often have to return empty-handed.
Utility stores authorities have refused to comment on the situation.
While ,
The weekly inflation, measured by Sensitive Price Indicator (SPI),, increased by 1.30 per cent on a year-on-year basis for the week ending on August 3, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) official data showed.
The SPI for the week under review in the above-mentioned group was recorded at 271.56 points as compared to 268.08 points during the past week, according to the PBS data.
Out of the 51 monitored items, the average price of 23 items increased, 7 items decreased whereas 21 items registered no change during the week.
The items, which recorded an increase in their average prices on a week-on-week (WoW), included Wheat Flour (131.40%), Cigarettes (109.57%), Gas Charges for Q1 (108.38%), Tea Lipton (97.71%), Rice Basmati Broken (82.86%), Rice Irri-6/9 (72.73%), Tomatoes (67.54%), Chilies Powder (66.74%), Sugar (64.12%), Chicken (60.51%), Gents Sponge Chappal (58.05%), Gur (57.75%) and Potatoes (55.75%).
Meanwhile, decrease is observed in the prices of Onions (37.10%), Electricity for Q1 (18.06%), Pulse Masoor (15.07%) and Vegetable Ghee 1 kg (1.13%).
