Karachi and Larkana have surfaced as the most expensive cities for consumers regarding a price gap in actual market prices of essential food items and the rates fixed by respective district administrations.
This was disclosed by the National Price Monitoring Committee (NPMC) on Monday.
In Sindh, Karachi has the highest gap of 94.81% between consumer prices and DC rates, followed by Larkana 49.54%, Sukkur 38.77%, Hyderabad 28.34%.
Meanwhile, in Punjab’s major cities, the price differential remained at a much lower rate, with Bahawalpur at the lowest of 9.25%.
The NPMC meeting, chaired by the Finance Minister, Dr. Abdul Hafeez, Shaikh, discussed the gaps in prices based on the Decision Support System for Inflation (DSSI).
The gap shows the failure of district administrations in implementing the rates in their respective districts.
Last week, the districts’ ranking showed an almost similar trend — with Karachi on the higher side.
This showed that the district administration in the city has yet to take full action in implementing the DC rates. Post-devolution, price control falls within the jurisdiction of provinces.
The ranking shows that after Bahawalpur, the lowest gap was recorded in Sialkot at 10.35%, followed by Lahore at 10.53%, Rawalpindi at 11.84%, and Sargodha at 12.98%.
A slight increase was posted in the ranking of Faisalabad with a gap of 16.16%.
In Multan, the gap fell slightly to 21.65% and Gujranwala to 18.75%, respectively.
In Islamabad, a decline was noted in the gap, which fell to 19.16%.
In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the gap is reported at 17.09% in Peshawar, while in the city of Bannu, the gap stood at 26.75%.
In Balochistan, in the Quetta district, the gap is reported at 30.81%, while in Khuzdar, it was reported at 38.53%.
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