Tarin Suggests a Strategy to Prevent Hoarding of Basic Commodities

Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue, Mr. Shaukat Tarin, chaired the meeting of the National Price Monitoring Committee (NPMC) held at the Finance Division.

In his remarks, the Finance Minister stressed the importance of meaningful interventions in the market by building strategic reserves of basic commodities, namely wheat, sugar, edible oil/ghee, vegetables, and pulses, to prevent hoarding and undue profiteering.

The government will flood the markets with necessary commodities to bridge the supply and demand gap where needed, to check price hikes. Pakistan is the net importer of key food items such as wheat, sugar, and pulses. The current upsurge in international food prices amid the coronavirus pandemic makes it imperative to build strategic reserves of essential commodities to bring stability in the prices of items of daily use.