Rawalpindi:
It is estimated that 70 to 80% of grocery merchants from the Rawalpindi district suspended sugar sales, leading prices in the city center to RS190 and RS200 per kilogram and RS210 in peripheral areas.
Many traders, although holding stocks, have now reserved sugar for longtime customers, refusing to sell to unknown buyers due to the threat of heavy fines, challans and store closings. The shortage has worsened in the midst of independence and holidays celebrations.
Salim Perviz Butt, the president of the Grocery Merchants Association, says that traders are ready to sell sugar to RS173 per kilogram, provided that the government, via the deputy commissioner (DC) and the price control magistrates, provides them with a large rate of RS165 per kilogram.
“If traders on the free market buy sugar at Rs176 per kilogram, they cannot sell it to Rs173,” he said. “Our only remaining option is to completely stop selling sugar. The government and the DC do not see it as their duty to provide sugar at the controlled rate.
The administration insists that its only directive is the official price of RS173 per kilogram, and that traders are free to buy sugar at any price and any source. However, if they do not sell at the official rate, their stores are sealed, heavy fines inflicted and registered legal affairs. “”
