Government of Pakistan has increased the rates of Ghee and cooking oil unprecedentedly. 208 more at an all-time high of 213 555 and 605 per liter from 1st June today. According to the report of Dawn News, the price of ghee keeps hovering between 540- 560 per liter in the country.
Umar Islam Khan, general secretary of the Pakistan Vegetable Manufacturers Association (PVMA), indicated that the retail rates of ghee and cooking oil would soon be at par with that of the Utility Stores Corporation (USC).
USC is a Pakistani state-owned enterprise that operates across the country and provides basic commodities to the general public at subsidized rates.
Khan said the ghee/cooking oil manufacturers have stopped giving the products on credit to USC as the corporation has not paid the dues. 2-3 billion to manufacturers.
Pakistan has seen a 300% increase in the prices of edible oil and ghee in the last six months. Pakistan is dependent on palm oil from Indonesia. The country imports more than 85% of its goods from Indonesia.
The current shipment problem of palm oil exports from Indonesia is the major concern behind the skyrocketing prices of cooking oil and ghee in Pakistan.
Khan, PVMA Secretary General, said that despite Indonesia lifting export restrictions on palm oil on May 23, not a single loaded vessel was on the high seas or Indonesia port for shipment to Pakistan.
According to Dawn news, the normal duty rate on the import of crude palm oil is 8,000 per tonne while its imports from Indonesia and Malaysia under Free Trade Agreement (FTA) / Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) are 6,800 per tonne. In both cases, imports are then subject to an additional 2% customs duty, 2% withholding tax and 17% general sales tax.
The business community had approached Pakistan’s Ministry of Commerce to remove an additional 2% customs duty on palm oil imports from Malaysia to offset the high cost of Malaysian palm oil, which is 15-20% costlier than Indonesia. Is.
Separately, Pakistan’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 13.8% in May from a year earlier, the country’s Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday. This is compared to an increase of 13.4 per cent in April compared to a year ago. The CPI in May grew by 0.4% over the previous month. The inflation figures come days after the government partially scrapped costly fuel subsidies to unlock much-needed funding from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).