Our Correspondent Faisalabad
State Minister for Information and Broadcasting Farrukh Habib said on Sunday the PTI government was trying its level best to pass on minimum impact of global inflation to its masses and in this connection, focused policies were being launched to enhance domestic production in addition to minimizing imports of food items.
Addressing a press conference here at Circuit House, he said that 40 percent increase had been recorded at international level particularly in food items.
Citing the statics of Food and Agriculture Organization UN, he said that inflation was a global phenomena which had further aggravated the situation due to coronavirus.
He said that it was very difficult for the government with highly volatile economy to rein in its impacts and save people from high inflation rate.
He said that edible oil and pulses were generally imported to meet domestic needs. As per the report, 124 percent increase had been recorded in edible oil, 28% in dairy items, 10 % in meat, 57 % in sugar while 37 percent increase had been witnessed in the cereals and pulses.
He said the PTI government fully utilized its resources and administrative skills to control the prices of food items which were produced locally.
He refuted the allegations of PPP and PML-N and said that Pakistan had controlled the inflation prudently while a reasonable subsidy was given to maintain the prices of flour and sugar, etc.
Farrukh Babib said the PTI government had initiated a new project of National Food Security to enhance domestic production of edible oil, cereals and food to save people from the impact of global price hike.
He further said that petroleum prices also jumped in the international market but in Pakistan, the government maintained it static for the last two months.
In this connection, petroleum levies have been trimmed and the government had to bear an additional burden of Rs 8 billion to give cheaper petroleum products to its people.
