Essential commodities: Tarin seeks real-time inflation data of 19 more cities to ease price hike

Local media reported that soon after taking charge as finance minister, ShaukatTarin convened a preliminary meeting with top officials of PBS and Planning Commission to access and examine the existing techniques used by PBS for collecting data and analyzing it.

Earlier this year in January, the Decision Support System for Inflation was introduced by PBS to monitor the gap between real rates of essential food items and prices fixed by the district administrations. Presently, it the data of only 17 major cities is being recorded through this method.

Following the meeting, the finance minister directed PBS to include 19 more cities on its radar in a bid to address the issue of inflation.

Moreover, he directed Pakistan Bureau of Statistics to frequently compare the changes in wholesale and retail prices of essential food commodities in different districts across the country. The PBS will further compare and analyze the differences in rates of food commodities of provinces as well. Presently, PBS provides data of comparison at retail level.

Furthermore, government will designate specific people who will visit markets regularly to keep a check on the prices.

Shaukat Tarin also appreciated the use of technology by PBS and envcouraged them to adopt more technological methods in order to make data more neutral, targeted and reliable for the purpose of comparison and analysis.

The finance minister further stated that in order to provide relief to the masses, it is important to address the root cause of inflation by formulating a new hierarchy of administrative control.