Wholesale Grocers Association Chairman Abdul Rauf Ibrahim has demanded a cut in the retail price of flour in the city. Ibrahim said that the retailers were selling flour at higher prices as the Karachi Commissioner had not yet notified new prices amid a cut in the wheat price. According to him, flour was being sold across the city at Rs123 per kilogramme. Ibrahim said that the flour price in Karachi was higher compared with Hyderabad where the commodity was available for Rs108 per kg in the retail market. Abdul Rauf Ibrahim claimed that the wholesalers have demanded multiple times from the Karachi Commissioner to slash the price as wheat prices have come down to Rs85 per kg. The wholesalers were selling the commodity at Rs104 per kilogramme while the government notified price for flour was Rs123 per kg in the retail market in the city, he said.

The benefit of a cut in the wheat price was not being passed to the masses as the retailers were selling the commodity at higher prices, he added. Meanwhile, he said that the price of flour has been notified at Rs103 per kg at the wholesale market in Hyderabad while it was being sold at Rs108 per kg in the retail market. Last month, a retailer in Karachi’s Jodia Bazaar faced penalty for selling flour at ‘lower price’ than the official rate. Karachi Wholesaler Grocers Group (KWGG) lamented the fines imposed on the retailer, threatening of a shutter-down strike against the ‘injustice’. In a statement, the Wholesaler Grocers chairman said that the shopkeeper was selling the flour at Rs115 per kg against the official rate of Rs123 per kg.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan