KARACHI: Flour millers raised the ex-mill flour price by Re1 three to four days after Eidul Azha, it is learnt on Monday.

However, there is confusion in the market as sources said the millers had raised the prices without informing the Sindh government, while some said the millers increased the rates after knowing that the government had withdrawn the ex-mill rate of Rs39.50 per kg fixed in the third week of August.

Many members of the Pakistan Flour Mills Association (Sindh Zone) tried to avoid talking on this issue that whether they had secretly raised the prices or they were encouraged to do this after withdrawal of ex-mill rate by the government.

A miller, who declined to be named, said the provincial government had not withdrawn the August notification. He admitted the millers had surged the flour price by Re1 to Rs41.50 from Rs39.50 per kg.

The millers made several requests to the Sindh government in September and October to raise the rates by at least Rs1.25 per kg to offset the rising cost of production caused by massive increase in power tariff and transportation charges.

After getting no response from the government, the millers raised the prices on their own a few days back.

A miller said how he could sustain the rising production cost since he started getting monthly power bill of Rs2.6 million now compared with Rs1.7m in the past. He said the government had increased the power tariff by over 50 per cent while transportation cost had also swelled sharply since the PML-N government came into power.

The millers in the last few months had already raised the prices several times because of rising price of 100kg wheat bag and other expenses.

Asked what is the benefit of importing wheat from Russia as consumers are not getting any price relief in flour, the miller the wheat rate would have crossed Rs4,000 per 100kg bag and flour price would have crossed Rs50 per kg if imports had not been initiated.

Currently, the price of imported wheat ranges between Rs3,500 and Rs3,525 per 100kg bag, while the price of locally produced wheat hovers between Rs3,650 and Rs3,680 per 100kg.

Last month imported wheat was available at Rs3,425-3,450, and locally produced wheat was at Rs3,500-3,560 per 100kg bag.

The import of wheat is also thriving and as per the figures of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, wheat import in July-September 2013 stood at 143,924 tonnes ($41m).

Sources said that around 150,000 tonnes more wheat had arrived in October and hopefully 300,000-400,000 tonnes more would land by January 2014.