Prices of pulses have not come down: survey

Despite a number of apparent measures by the government after the budget prices of pulses have not come down, except for channa which registered Rs 3-4 per kilo downward trend. A Business Recorder survey showed that owing to the price spiral, sale and consumption of pulses had significantly reduced as compared to last year.
It was learnt through interviews with wholesale dealers and shopkeepers that Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz was misinformed about the price situation of the must-kitchen commodities of the salaried and labour classes.
Four months back, daal mash (best quality) was being sold at Rs 44-48 per kilo, moong (washed) at Rs 34-36 per kilo, masoor (washed) 34 per kilo, channa Rs 28 per kg. But now these items are available at Rs 78-80, Rs 56-58, Rs 43-44 and Rs 36 per kilo respectively in the twin cities here.
'Dalgran' (wholesale) Bazaar Association General Secretary Abdul Rasheed told Business Recorder that prices could have been easily kept under control, if the government had taken timely pre-emptive measures and imported the commodities well before the supply-demand crisis.
He said that despite recent import of dal maash, moong, channa and masoor, the rates of these commodities by and large have remained unchanged. About their availability at cheaper rates at the Utility Stores shops, he said that it was not viable for consumers living away from its shops.
Rasheed advocated for a prudent policy for pulses, saying that unless the Ministry of Food and Agriculture announced fixed prices for these items, such crisis could occur again any time, though the present one is far from over.
He contended that since pulses are consumed by the country's bulk of population, there was an urgent need to also ensure provision of inputs to the growers at a controlled rate.
Pulses are usually cultivated in marginal areas or small pieces of rugged land, and it again depends on the growers' sweet will whether or not to go for these crops. Last year, they could not get any incentive, whereas prices of inputs went up dramatically, forcing them to look for other options, he said.
Another wholesale dealer at the bazaar, established over four decades ago in Raja Bazaar, Mohammad Shakeel, said that the country had never witnessed such cut-throat price hike, which was yet to be brought down.
A retailer, Ishaq Abbasi, said that complaints were coming from consumers that imported pulses, particularly daal channa and daal maash, were taking more time while cooking and as such they did not like its quality.
A US-based Pakistani doctor, who purchases 20 kilo pulses monthly for a charity organisation, was shocked to hear about almost 50 to 100 percent increase in the prices.
"What is the government doing? This is unacceptable," Abbasi quoted the doctor as expressing his rude shock. The doctor, much to his astonishment, told him that in the US, prices of food items had not changed for years, Abbasi said.