Analysts warn that trade cartels were never so strong as is evident from frequent disappearance and price spiral of wheat flour, rice, sugar, vegetables and fruits and many other edible goods. Ramazan, this year may be a real test for consumers’ endurance. Consumers in Sindh particularly in Karachi, with about 20 million people, remain vulnerable to frequent scarcities and rising prices of essential food items for a variety of reasons. First, the city is more than 100 miles away from food-growing areas; second, Sindh is the only province without any consumers’ protection law.

Third, “the price controlling authorities in Sindh have no vision, no capacity and no commitment to protect consumers’ interest in the province’’, Bilal Ahmad, a teacher of economics in a reputed college remarked.

As he believes, the government takes the problem of prices and supply of goods as an entirely administrative issue and finds convenient solutions like carrying out raids on shops, imposing fines and harassing shopkeepers and businessmen.

For market intelligence, he said, the government should hire statisticians and analysts to keep people informed about the demand and supply of all essential goods and cut down the number of tiers in the supply chain between the producer and consumer.

A Consumers’ Protection Ordinance was promulgated in Sindh in 2006 but it was never adopted by previous Sindh Assembly and lapsed, unlike in the case of the three other provincial assemblies. Lahore has now 11 Consumers’ Courts at district levels. They have taken up cases against top companies including multinationals on charges of high prices and questionable quality of products.

But in Sindh, the Provincial Minister for Supply and Prices, Mr Shoaib Bokhari has no idea of how many fruits and vegetable trucks are coming every day to Subzi Mundi on Super Highway from upcountry. He does not know the consumption pattern of the city, particularly in Ramazan.

“This is the job of other government departments,’’ he informed Dawn over telephone on Wednesday when asked if he was trying to put in place some infrastructure in his department to gather market intelligence.

Price control is one of the functions of the City District Government of Karachi. Its officers monitor auction of fruits and vegetables at Subzi Mandi. The rates on which fruits and vegetables are auctioned serve as a basis of price fixation.

“We fix Rs4 to Rs5 a kilogramme over and above the auction price’’, Mr Mubashir, a functionary of CDGK informed. His boss Mr Rashid did not know the volume of inflow of fruits and vegetables and if there was anyone monitoring the supply and consumption of these vegetables and fruits.

Fruits and vegetable merchants in Karachi allege that auctions at Subzi Mundi are manipulated by powerful cartels with support of the CDGK officials. “The trade in farm products is controlled by a nexus of urban and rural brokers who operate with the connivance of government functionaries’’, a banker in agricultural credit wing said.

In this backdrop of market manipulation and almost non-existent market regulation, one witnesses frequent raids, imposition of fines and harassment of shopkeepers during Ramazan. The government wants shopkeepers to sell goods at a price fixed by its functionaries without giving the least attention to the supply position.

“How can we offer goods on government fixed prices as we buy these from other parts or depend entirely on import’’, Anis Majeed, leader of the Whole Sellers Group in Karachi said.

“Our suppliers are in Thatta, Hyderabad, Larkana, Lahore, Chaman, Loralai, Peshawar, Nowshera and many other parts of the country where rates vary’’ he explained. Then there is transport cost, damages during transportation and of course, some money is paid at various check posts.

Many pulses and spices are imported from India, Australia, Turkey, China, Far Eastern countries and even from South America. Obviously, the exchange rate and freight cost plus the local financial charges and transportation impact collectively on retail prices of these items. And these are variable costs.

“But bulk of this domestic trade is un-documented and hence there is a big room for whole sellers and retailers to charge high prices’’, Junaid Ahmad of Consumers’ Rights Council asserted. The council operates from Governor House and is headed by Chairman of Citizens Police Liaison Committee (CPLC). Junaid’s point is that documentation of transactions between the suppliers and whole sellers and between whole sellers and retailers can provide some relief to consumers.

Farid Qureshi, a leader of retailers in the city, endorsing Anis Majid’s views pointed out that a small businessman has no capacity to hoard goods for a long period. He offered a price list of his store at a busy commercial area on Tariq Road where prices of about three dozen items, branded and unbranded, have been volatile since January this year. Right from powdered chilly, to coriander and of branded products like tea and milk, prices have not been stable over the last eight months. “What can we say about Ramazan’’? he asked.

A retail outlet offers unbranded goods and branded products to consumers like packed milk, vegetable ghee, butter, spices and a few other items. Branded milk companies have raised prices and we have no choice but to sell it