ISLAMABAD: The government has established Ramazan Bazaars in various cities in the country including Islamabad to provide food items at subsidized rates to people, which was laudable initiative.

However, government should ensure availability of sufficient quantity of quality good items in these bazaars to provide real relief to the people. This was stressed by Ahmed Hassan Moughal, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) in a statement here on Thursday.

He said in some cities, people were reportedly facing shortage of needed food items or availability of low quality items in Ramazan Bazaars, which was not good as it would negate the purpose of establishing these subsidized bazaars.

He said people were facing high inflation and in these conditions, subsidized Ramazan Bazaars could provide much needed relief to the common man, therefore government should make sure that all needed items was available in sufficient quantity to people in these bazaars.

Rafat Farid Senior Vice President and Iftikhar Anwar Sethi Vice President ICCI said that under the IMF conditions, government has planned to increase electricity and gas tariffs that would have adverse effect on the business community and the general public.

They said already the government has increased prices of POL products which has significantly enhanced the cost of doing business and pushed up inflation for people.

In these circumstances, making further increase in electricity and gas tariff would bring very harmful consequences for the business sector as well as the common man.

They urged that government should avoid making any further increase in power tariffs and try to create conducive conditions for business and industry so that business activities could grow smoothly that would help in early recovery of economy.