Hoarding and profiteering has increase poverty, frustration
Karachi (Pakistan Point News - 11th Aug, 2021) Chairman of National Business Group Pakistan, President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum, and All Karachi Industrial Alliance, and former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussain on Wednesday said landed nobility should be stopped from hijacking benefits approved for small farmers.
He said that mismanagement has not only weakened the agriculture sector but also resulted in increased imports, hoarding and profiteering resulting in poverty.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that prices of food items are increasing for few years which has eroded the buying power of poor and middle-income groups.
Talking to the business community, the veteran business leader said that now a good part of the population is using most of their income to buy food compromising health, education, and other necessities which are fanning problems.
He said that increase in the value of dollar, price of petrol and indirect taxes has resulted in inflation while now the government is preparing for an increase in power and gas tariff which will mush millions below the poverty line.
The UF Food Department has noticed that prices of food items have witnessed an increase of 31 percent from June 2020 to June 2021 while local experts say that Pakistan was worst hit by the food inflation.
Apart from petroleum products, Pakistan is spending substantially on the import of wheat, sugar, edible oil, pulses which will never allow the authorities to provide any relief to the masses, he observed.
The business leader said that policymakers should promote agriculture which will provide relief to growers and consumers which require proper mechanisms as adhoc packages have not helped it.
The central banks should be given more powers to promote agriculture and contain inflation while it must be ensured that benefits meant for small landholders should reach them.
