Punjab Minister for Excise & Taxation Hafiz Mumtaz Ahmad has said the Punjab Govt. had taken concrete steps to control the unjustified price hike of essential commodities in the Province.
He was presiding over a meeting at Commissioner Office to review the performance of divisional and district administration regarding the price control. Divisional Commissioner Mehmud Javed Bhatti gave briefing about the measures taken for implementation of price control mechanism in Faisalabad division. RPO Ghulam Mehmud Dogar, Deputy Commissioner Muhammad Ali, CPO Azhar Akram, ACs and other officers were also present in the meeting while the officers of district administrations Jhang, TT Singh and Chiniot participated the meeting through video link.
While reviewing the reviewing the price control mechanism, the Punjab Minister for Excise said that Prime Minister Imran Khan and CM Punjab Sardar Usman Buzdar had taken serious notice of public complaints regarding unfair price hike and assigned the duties to the Provincial Ministers to supervise the divisional and district administrations performance of controlling negative trend of price hike. He said that Price Control Magistrates should play active role to check the prices of essential items in the market.
He said that the officials of Market Committees should also improve their performance regarding supervision of supply and demand of the essential commodities in whole sale markets besides issuing the daily price lists of fruit and vegetables timely. The Minister emphasized upon maximum field visits of officers and said that close liaison with the traders of Grain and Vegetable Markets be ensured and the elements involved in profiteering should be dealt with iron hand to make the campaign against profiteering a success. He directed for getting the price lists displayed on conspicuous places at each and every shop and said that the performance of divisional and distinct administrations should be visible clearly in this connection.
During the meeting, Divisional Commissioner Mehmud Javed Bhatti informed that the fine of Rs.4.462 million had been imposed against the profiteers during the last month by the Price Control Magistrates in Faisalabad division. He said that the concerned officers had been made bound to visit vegetable and fruit markets daily on regular basis to review the auction process in order to control the unjustified increased of prices.
RPO Ghulam Mehmud Dogar assured all out cooperation of the police for controlling the price hike and black marketing of essential commodities.
Deputy Commissioner Faisalabad Muhammad Ali informed that immediate action had been taken by the district administration against the complaints received through "Qeemat Punjab App". He said that Price Control Magistrates had been mobilized to check the prices in the markets and heavy fines were being imposed on the incorrigible shop keepers involved in profiteering.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2019
Comments
Comments are closed.