Credibility of statistics on essential commodities' prices prepared by the Finance Ministry has been questioned by the country's top decision body ie federal cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, well informed sources told Business Recorder.
Survey of essential items is carried out by the Statistics Division, which performs under the control of Finance Ministry and Finance Minister, who is also Chairman of the Economic Co-ordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet. Sources revealed that during the first federal cabinet meeting under the chairmanship of the new Prime Minister last week, a number of queries were raised by the members challenging the prices quoted by the Finance Ministry in its presentation. The Prime Minister himself did not agree with the price data presented by the Finance Ministry.
"The Ministry of Finance was directed to ensure the presentation of verified/correct prices of essential items/commodities before the cabinet and speculative figures must be avoided," the sources added. Earlier, the cabinet was briefed on the current Consumer Price Index (CPI), which determines the change in prices of essential commodities.
It was stated that CPI had been calculated as 12.3 percent for May 2012 on year-on-year basis, while inflation had been recorded at 11.3 percent and 13 percent in respect of food and non-food items respectively. CPI, Sensitive Price Index (SPI) and Wholesale Price Index (WPI) were recorded during July to May 2011-12 at 11 percent, 6.8 percent and 10.8 percent respectively. The latest CPI, SPI and WPI data in 2011-12 were lower as compared to 2010-11.
The SPI decreased by 0.24 percent during the week ending on June 21. The decrease in prices of petrol, diesel, kerosene, gram pulse, Moong pulse, Mash pulse, sugar, vegetable ghee (loose) and red chillies contributed to decrease in SPI. The items which recorded increase in their prices were tomatoes, potatoes, milk powder (Nido), chicken farm, garlic, cooking oil (Tin), egg (farm), onion, vegetable Ghee (tin), mustard oil, wheat and rice Basmati broken. Out of 53 items, prices of 16 items registered increase, while prices of nine items decreased and prices of 28 items remained unchanged.
The cabinet was also informed that a combination of global trends in the prices of several commodities, such as over 33 percent increase in price of rice, over three percent decrease in crude oil prices, over 6.8 percent decrease in the prices of palm oil and over five percent decrease in the prices of sugar, since May 2011, has been noted.
A National Price Monitoring Committee (NPMC) has been constituted under the Secretary Finance to review the price and supply position of essential items in consultation with the provincial governments and concerned Ministries/Divisions. It has held 12 meetings so far to review price and supply position of essential food items.
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