The prices of all daily use items have registered an unprecedented increase after successive increase in the prices of petroleum products and natural gas, revealed a survey conducted by Business Recorder here on Saturday.
This correspondent visited different wholesale and retail markets in twin cities of Rawalpindi/Islamabad and noted that the prices of food basket including vegetables, flour, eggs, pulses, rice, chicken, meat and others edibles have increased by 10 to 20 percent due to high transportation cost.
Twin cities traders said that most of the daily use items are being transported from other parts of the country and transporters have increased the fares by 10 percent, due to successive increase in the prices of petroleum products.
Vegetables, fruits, pulses, chicken and wheat are brought from cities like Gujranwala, Mansehra, Haripur, Hafizabad and Murree to the twin- city and transporters have increased one sided fares by Rs 1000 to 1500 per truck.
Live chicken price increased by Rs 15kg, chicken meat by Rs 25kg, tomato by Rs 10kg and orange price went up by Rs 20-40 per dozen depending on the quality. During the week price of oranges increased from Rs 60 per dozen to Rs 80 per dozen, price of apples from Rs 80 per kg to Rs 100 per kg and guava from Rs 50 per kg to Rs 60 per Kg.
Mutton is being sold at Rs 500 per kg against the official rate of Rs 400 per kg and beef at Rs 350 per kg against Rs 250 per kg. Live chicken is available at Rs 160 per kg, while chicken meat costs Rs 280 per kg, one dozen eggs are being sold at Rs 110 and normal quality bread is being sold at Rs 30 per pack.
"Meat is getting out of the reach of the common man and the government has failed to control the price of food grains," said Imtiaz Shah, a shopper at Narankari Bazaar. He said the price hike had badly affected, especially the salaried class and daily wagers. According to traders'' grains, pulses and oil is getting costlier with each passing day. They added that this year prices of kitchen items would maintain increasing trend as was witnessed in the last year.
Dal Channa was available at Rs 75 per kg against the official price of Rs 70 per kg, Dal Masoor at Rs 125 per kg against Rs 114 per kg, Maash at Rs 150-170 per kg against Rs 140-160 per kg, Dal Moong at Rs 150 per kg against Rs 140 per kg and rice at Rs 100-120 per kg against Rs 90-100 per kg. Milk was available at Rs 70 per litre against the official price of Rs 50 per litre and yoghurt at Rs 80 per kg against Rs 60 per kg.
House rent in Islamabad as well as Rawalpindi has also gone up by 50 percent; a normal two bedroom house available at Rs 6,000 to 8,000 in areas like Iqbal Town and Shamsabad a year ago is now available at Rs 10,000.
The survey noted, a few years back a good quality suit was available at Rs 12,000 which included Rs 3000 stitching charges, now it costs Rs 15,000-18,000. Similarly shoe makers like Service and Bata have also increased the prices of their brands from Rs 300 per pair to Rs 500 per pair. An ordinary pair of shoe made by Service Company was available at Rs 1,000 last year, which now costs Rs 1200-1300.
During the week under review onion prices went up by Rs 5 as the commodity is being sold at Rs 50 in wholesale market and Rs 60 in retail market, which a few days back was being sold at Rs 45 per kg in the retail market.
Comments
Comments are closed.