The government has started strict monitoring of ghee and cooking oil prices in the wholesale market to arrest the rising trend in the wake of increase in palm oil prices at international level, official sources told Business Recorder.
"We are closely monitoring the wholesale and retail markets, on daily basis, as we are witnessing rising trend in ghee and cooking oil prices in the wake of rising palm oil prices," sources said.
They that the ship carrying palm oil consignment, which was booked after rise in palm oil prices, is yet to be offloaded but the wholesale dealers increased their rates above the international prices.
An official, who apparently was not aware of the increase in cooking oil and ghee prices at the factory level, said that the manufacturers had not increased ex-factory price.
However, a local manufacturer confirmed that prices had been increased by Rs 6 per kg because of increase in international prices by about $100 per ton to $530 from $440. Another argument he gave was that Indonesia and Malaysia had started using palm oil crude as bio-diesel in vehicles. Increase in freight from $25 to $40 per tons was also among the factors, which increased the prices in the local market.
"The Government will take action if the ghee manufacturers, wholesale dealers or retailers increased prices above the international prices," sources added.
They said that the ghee manufacturers or wholesale dealers would not be allowed to fleece the general public, as was the case of cement.
Another official said that the ''prices committee'', headed by Prime Minister''s Advisor on Finance Dr Salman Shah, meets twice or thrice in a month, but it has yet to decide what it has to do to stabilise the prices of different commodities as these are continuously showing increasing trend.
The official further said that the Statistics Division has been given the task to collect prices data of 18 kitchen (essential) items like wheat, wheat flour, eggs, pulses, tomato, potato, chicken, etc on daily basis, but the prices of ghee/cooking oil, which is also one of the more essential items were not being monitored.
The Ministry of Industries and Production, the official said, has started its own monitoring system of ghee/cooking oil prices and would place the data before the Economic Co-ordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet for guidance, he added.
The ghee manufacturer said that importers had not placed import orders for large quantities in the hope of bumper local crop and thought that prices would come down within 10-15 days, as local crop would start reaching the market.
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