Staff Reporter Islamabad
Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Mr. Shaukat Tarin presided over the meeting of the National Price Monitoring Committee (NPMC) held at the Finance Division Monday.
Secretary Finance briefed the meeting about the slight up tick in weekly SPI, which increased by 0.03 percent during the week under review. Prices of 06 items witnessed a decline and 22 remained stable.
The Committee also reviewed the monthly inflation trend and noted that the CPI, which is 8.4% for July 2021 has declined by 1.3% as compared to the last month i.e. 9.7% in June 2021.
The Price Monitoring Committee also reviewed the prices of wheat, sugar, pulses, chicken and other essential food items in the country.
Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research Fakhar Imam, SAPM on Finance and Revenue Dr. Waqar Masood, Secretary Finance Division, SAPM National Food Security & Re-search Mr. Jamshed Cheema, Secretary M/o NFS&R, Secretary Commerce, Additional Secretary M/o PD&SI, Chief Secretaries of the Provincial Governments, Member PBS, Chief Commissioner Islamabad, Chairman CDA and other senior officers participated in the meeting.
The Secretary, M/o NFS& R updated the Commit-tee about the wheat procurement process. He ap-prised that order for purchase of 220,000 ton of wheat has already been placed.
While taking stock of the situation, the NPMC directed the Ministry of National Food Security and Research to take imme-diate steps for the import of 02 million tons of wheat to ensure adequate stocks of the wheat in the country.
Similarly, the Secretary Ministry of Industries and Production briefed NPMC about the efforts under-way for import of 600,000 tons of sugar for main-taining buffer stocks.
The tendering process has been initiated and adequate stocks of sugar will be available in the country until the next sugar season, he added.
The NPMC directed the Ministry of In-dustries & Production to expedite the tendering process and update Committee on weekly basis.
The Finance Minister reiterated the firm commit-ment of the Government in building strategic re-serves of essential commodities (sugar, wheat, pulses, edible oil/ghee etc) to ensure price stability and prevent undue profiteering and hoarding.
The strategic reserves would ensure timely availability of basic commodities to bridge the gap between supply and demand.
To this effect, the Finance Min-ister directed Secretary, M/o NFS&R to come up with a firm plan and place before the committee for discussion and requisite approval.
The Secretary Finance briefed the meeting on the prices of petroleum products in the neighbouring countries.
