ISLAMABAD: Caretaker Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Muhammad Sami Saeed chaired a meeting of the National Price Monitoring Committee (NPMC). The meeting discussed prices and supply of essential commodities, margin between wholesale and retail prices, and availability of essential items, a news release said.
The Chief Statistician of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) presented the price movement of 51 essential items collected from the markets of 17 cities. Minister Sami Saeed urged participants to ensure prices’ stability across provinces, seeking their oversights of the supply of essential items, available stock levels and the monitoring of pricing mechanisms. He also urged Deputy Commissioners and Assistant Commissioners to strictly employ the Decision Support System (DSS) App developed by the PBS for price monitoring. He emphasized the critical role of administrative oversight and monitoring for maintaining price stability.
Moreover, the meeting delved into the prospective utilization by the provinces of remote sensing technology facilitated by SUPARCO for better monitoring of cropped areas and the likely supply situation of essential food items. The minister encouraged the exploration and implementation of remote sensing capabilities to bolster the monitoring and oversight capacities. Sami Saeed emphasized the need for continued vigilance and proactive measures for smoothing supply to address fluctuations in commodity prices. Among others, the meeting was attended by representatives from the Ministry of Industries and Commerce, Utility Stores and provincial governments.
