Rising prices make lives miserable

The government is repeating slogans that it is taking practical measures to bring pleasant changes for the masses. But the prevailing conditions are not matching with the government's promises.
Instead it is obvious that prices of essential items are moving up sharply. This negative factor has made the lives of the poor miserable. They (public) have failed to tackle the soaring prices of daily commodities, rising unemployment, unprecedented rise in the rate of beggary, road jams due to under-construction work on different streets or overhead bridges in the city.
It is true that the people have limited sources of income, especially, salaried persons are fed up with the present trend in the daily items prices.
How can they bear this extraordinary burden? When consumers stare at shopkeepers for higher prices, they reply helplessly: "How can we sell at the cheaper rates?" The buyers, who visit the shops to purchase daily items, are shocked, because the sellers ask for higher prices against the previous day, and nobody is able to reply to these irregularities. It is going on and how far it will continue nobody knows.
These factors are increasing tensions between consumers and shopkeepers. We are fed up with these daily Phaddas as despite showing the list of items, people insist on lower prices, some dealers said at the local markets.
Despite the government slogans that it would bring prices of all essential items down, the rates are on the rising path. A fresh example is on hand. The sugar prices are shooting up despite the news that the country is importing the same to bring stability to the prices. The sugar prices are ranging between Rs 35-40 per kg.
Resultantly, despite several steps to control the country's imports, they are going upward, some economists said. According to a report, the import bills of the consumer goods went up by 44.57 percent to 857 million dollars during the first half of the current fiscal year (2005-06) against last year's figures of 592.897 million dollars.
Some commodity experts said that it is the rich class, which can afford imported items and can pay high rates but the majority belongs to the poor class, how they can purchase daily items at higher rates. Besides, some profiteers take full advantage of these unfavourable circumstances, demand higher rates or have created artificial shortage of these items, which also caused jitters among the consumers.
All these factors are causing frustrations and high tensions among the people. They may cause in rising the crime rates in the society.
Some analysts are of the view that why people do not stop buying for the time being. "Definitely, surprising and positive achievements would emerge from the public reaction towards the sky-rocketing trend in the prices. It would benefit them but they need patience to do so."
Some vegetable sellers at Nazimabad and Gulshan-e-Iqbal markets say that some time ago, onion prices were at Rs 5-7 per kg, but due to shortage of the said crop, prices went up to Rs 30-40. To minimise the masses' burden, the government has started importing onion from India.
Prices have come down but not at the actual rate. Who is under pressure, the general public and who will seek the cure or solution of these chronic problems. It is an important question? The fact is that from the actual rates, the prices are still double at Rs 12-15 in the local markets, the dealers said.
Many experts say that the country is able to meet the demand and can cut the import of some food and other items by adopting pre-cautionary measures. The government can avoid these unfavourable circumstances by increasing the production of several food items. It is importing heavy machinery to increase production, but it is not sufficient and it appears that the country has to do more to achieve the desired targets. It must introduce high technologies to set up heavy industries in the country to get the purpose.
To adopt comprehensive and balanced strategy, the government should keep a proper check and balance policy over the demand and supply policy. The country's policy-makers must adopt cautionary steps to control the ballooning trade deficit, which is soaring with the passage of time, instead of showing even a gradual fall in the present trend as the government is confident of achieving the desired targets, analysts said.
As a result of unprecedented increase in the volume of imports and slight rise in the exports, the country's current account deficit is nearly 2.903 billion dollars just within half year of the current fiscal 2005-06, showing 240 percent up from the corresponding period last year. This is an alarming situation for the country's policy-makers as a huge amount was spent from the exchequer on the import of goods.
Properly, it came under observation that despite not very strong economy, it is moving towards a net food importing country. The negative trend in the country's Balance of Payments pushed the trade deficit to 3.964 billion dollars.