Pakistan: This year, Ramadan will not going to be easy for Pakistan residents, especially for many low and middle-income groups, due to skyrocketing prices. In Iftar, people fast for more than 12 hours, and after fasting, people try to have a lavish iftar by arranging many items. But only some people with good wages and salaries are likely to limit their purchases this year.
The government is responsible for ensuring that affordable food items are available not just all year round but particularly during the holy month. Nevertheless, it is difficult to anticipate any extraordinary actions being taken to reduce prices, given that the government is currently occupied with political and economic turmoil and is counting on the approval of the International Monetary Fund loan.
The Pakistani government is unable to provide substantial subsidies or tax reductions to reduce prices. Any attempt to reduce costs by lowering taxes and tariffs may upset the International Monetary Fund before the loan is approved. Furthermore, consumers will not be satisfied with a decrease in prices of only 10-20%. A reduction of at least 30-40% is required to satisfy them.
Farid Qureishi, the General Secretary of the Karachi Retail Grocers Group, was quoted by Dawn as saying that he is preparing two types of ration packs for distribution to charity during Ramadan. The first pack, which costs Rs 4,000, contains items such as flour, sugar, rice, pulses, tea, salt, oil, ghee, gram, and vermicelli. The second pack, which costs Rs 6,000, has a larger quantity of products. Qureishi mentioned that last Ramadan, they were able to obtain these items at 40-50% lower rates.
However, he also stated that they were unable to include rice this year because good quality basmati rice is now being sold at prices between Rs 300-500 per kg, compared to last year’s prices of Rs 150-300 per kg.
On the other hand, chicken dealer Federal B Area stated, “This year am only going to put 40 lives birds as compared to eight because of high prices. Many of our daily customers only buy one bird for the entire week, and earlier, their consumption was two-three birds in a week.”
