Tariq Khattak

Islamabad: Chairman of National Business Group Pakistan, President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum, All Karachi Industrial Alliance, and former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussain said on Tuesday that the decrease in the dollar’s value has reduced the cost of imported goods.

However, it is unfortunate that certain importers are preventing the public from enjoying the advantages of reduced costs because of the compromised price control mechanism in the country, he said.

Mian Zahid Hussain said that the importers are filling their coffers instead of diverting the benefit of a strengthened exchange rate to the masses, which authorities should notice.

Talking to the business community, the veteran business leader said that the import cost of petroleum products has also reduced, but the price of petrol has increased, which is surprising.

Mian Zahid Hussain said that the importers are busy filling their pockets instead of benefiting the people despite the fall of many commodities in the international market.

He said that the price control mechanism in the country is compromised, which is keeping the masses from benefitting despite unprecedented inflation.

He informed the dollar was available for 307 rupees in September last year, which has now decreased to 278. Still, the people are being deprived of its benefits.

The business leader said that the price of imported wheat has also reduced, but the masses are getting flour at high prices. For example, the import cost of wheat, pulses, and many other edibles and the production cost of sugar have also been reduced. Still, people need to be given benefits.

He said that India has started relieving its people by banning the export of onion and rice. Still, such a decision was not taken in Pakistan, providing an opportunity for exporters and smugglers to take full advantage of the situation at the cost of the masses.

The unabated export and smuggling of onion have increased its prices in the local market, compounding the masses’ problems. Still, it has been ignored by those running the show.

Similarly, the prices of poultry, beef, and mutton are continuously increasing, which is expanding people’s anxiety, but profiteering continues unabated.

Mian Zahid Hussain further said that border security gets relaxed during the Eid holidays, taking advantage of smugglers bringing and dumping goods worth billions of rupees into the country, which should be stopped.