The 'khokha' owners in the provincial capital have significantly increased the prices of both local and imported (duty free) cigarettes and paan after the government imposed a 14-day lockdown in Punjab amid growing spread of coronavirus outbreak.
The khokha owners, who are now operating from homes owing to the closure of markets, are also offering free home delivery services, but with a minimum order of Rs 1,000 or so. A number of traders who spoke to Business Recorder were of the view that closure of khokhas by the government was not a good choice as a large population is addicted to paan and smoking and restricting or banning their access to these items is not possible. They explained that in case of closure of one shop or another, a smoker or paan addict won't stop his search for his desired item until he/she gets it no matter how much the distance is longer. Similarly, an addict also does not bother how much he/she is spending in case of shortage of the product, they added.
They said that India and Sri Lanka are two main suppliers of Saloon leafs (paan patta) but after the closure of borders and suspension of the airspace, there is a shortage of raw material in the market and wholesale dealers are exploiting the situation by demanding prices of their choice. In that scenario, they added, the small-scale traders are also compelled to sell the available stock at surging rates "because they too have families to feed".
"Before the lockdown, the saloon leafs were available in the market at around Rs 2,300 to Rs 2,500 per kilogram. But now the wholesale dealers are selling the same leafs at around Rs 6,000 to Rs 7,000 per kilogram," a khokha owner, Moazam Shah, told Business Recorder. Earlier, he said, a "danda" (pack of 10 cigarettes) of "Benson Double O" was available at Rs 1,950 but now it is being sold at Rs 2,300 to Rs 2,500. Similarly, Dunhill Lights was available at Rs 1,950 and it is now being sold at Rs 2,600; while L&M Lights is being sold at Rs 900 against the previous rate of Rs 700. In imported range, these are three most favorite brands of people among others and their prices are likely to go up further because of limited supply in the market, he added. He asserted that the price of L&M Lights is likely to increase sharply in coming days since many people had switched to this brand after the price for a single pack of Benson Double O and Dunhill Lights reached Rs 300 or above.
In local range, he added, Capstan and John Players Gold Leaf are two favorite or highly demanded brands. And now a danda of Capstan is being sold at Rs 850 against the previous rate of Rs 767 while Gold Leaf is available at Rs 2,000 instead of Rs 1,700, he maintained.
Awais Mirza, another trader, said that the demand of traditional "meetha paan" has almost ended now due to the lockdown. However, the demand of "patti wala paan" (tobacco paan) is still intact to some extent, he added. When asked how the demand of tobacco paan could remain intact, the trader explained that though the traditional customers have been wiped out from the market but at the same time their regular customers have also increased their demand.
Comments
Comments are closed.