The Flour Mills Association in the Sindh province on Monday hiked prices of flour after they claimed an increase in prices of wheat province-wide, it has been learnt. The mill owners raised the prices of flour No. 2.5 by Rs 3 per kilogram (Kg), fine flour by Rs 1.5 per kg, and Chakki flour by Rs 2 per kg. After the increase in prices, the 10-kilogram bag of 2.5 No flour is being sold out at Rs 570. The flour mills have raised the prices on the basic food commodity by Rs 9 in the past week. The decision was taken after the wheat prices moved up to Rs 5100 per 100 kg bag. The flour mills association has also summoned a meeting to further raise flour prices in the province and blamed the Sindh government for not providing wheat to the mills in the last week. In May, it emerged that Sindh had reportedly bought 40 percent less wheat from its required quota. Sources had revealed that the Sindh government already embroiled in a 15 billion rupees wheat theft scandal bought lesser wheat than the allocated budget but the documents showed that the entire budget allocation for the purchase has been consumed. Sources had raised alarm bells on the situation claiming that the cities of Hyderabad and Karachi may be faced with a severe wheat and flour shortfall in the coming days. Government sources had also claimed that there seems to be a concerted effort to push the country into another wheat and flour crisis like in January of the ongoing year.
