ISLAMABAD: Federal Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has said that the government is introducing executive magistracy system to control prices of essential commodities and to take action against profiteering, hoarding and black-marketing.
He said this while presiding over the 23rd meeting of the National Price Monitoring Committee (NPMC) which decided to control prices of items of daily need with the support of provincial governments and other stakeholders so that cartels, profiteers and hoarders may not make undue profits.
The government succeeded to bring inflation down to 5.8 per cent during October 2014, which is the lowest in previous 17 months while food inflation has been contained at 5.2pc and non-food at 6.3pc through implementing measures, like monitoring of prices and supply as well other administrative measures and adopting appropriate monetary and fiscal policies.
An official statement, quoting an official of the ministry of Inter-Provincial Coordination (IPC), informed the finance minister that the proposal has been approved by the Council of Common Interests (CCI), where all provinces have agreed to proceed on the matter at the earliest.
In July 2013, the decision for the revival of the executive magistracy system was taken in the NPMC meeting. Even after a lapse of 15 months, the executive magistracy system has yet to be implemented.
