ISLAMABAD: The holy month of Ramadan is around the corner and ICT administration should reactivate price control committees in markets to keep the prices at reasonable level and control inflation. This was said by Ahmed Hassan Moughal, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry. He emphasized that the constitution of Islamabad Market Committee should be revised and ICCI should be given representation in it so that joint efforts could be made to keep prices from further hike.
Ahmed Hassan Moughal said that ICT administration often imposes heavy fines on shopkeepers to control prices, but this is not a sustainable solution. He said one of the main reasons of price hike is shortage of goods in markets due to supply chain issues. He urged that administration should take measures to ensure smooth supply of goods from production points to markets as timely supply of goods in markets would help in reducing unnecessary price hike.
ICCI President said that inflation rate in Pakistan was 3.68 percent in April 2018 that has gone up to 9.41 percent by February 2019, which shows that people are suffering from high inflation. He stressed that government should take urgent remedial measures to bring down inflation. He said that rising inflation always results into reduced purchasing power of people that causes low purchasing and further slump in business activities. Therefore, controlling inflation is very important for smooth growth of business activities.
Rafat Farid Senior Vice President and Iftikhar Anwar Sethi Vice President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry said that government has hiked the prices of electricity, gas and petroleum products due to which cost of doing business has increased manifold. They said that Pakistan is facing rising trade deficit and the best solution of this problem is to boost exports. However, they said that due to rising production cost, our exports are facing stiff competition in international market which is evident from the fact that in March 2019, exports have declined by over 11 percent. They emphasized that government should bring down power tariff and prices of POL products in order to reduce cost of doing business. It will cause reduction in inflation and give boost to business and economic activities, they opined.
