KARACHI, March 24: The caretaker government, not only failed to safeguard the interests of the general public, but added to their woes during its tenure of over four months, trade sources said on Monday. Its major blow to the people was in the shape of two price hikes in petroleum products in March.

They maintained that the government did nothing to control the price hike and made no serious efforts to arrest food inflation. Even, there was no check on prices of essential items, thus giving the market forces a free hand in fleecing the consumers.

The impact of the increase in local oil prices has touched the wholesale price level with sudden increase in transportation charges. However, its impact is not being felt at the retail level as the prices of all the essential items are already high.

It is no denying the fact that the government could not help out when there had been an overall inflationary trend in prices of food items in world markets. However, at least it could have introduced some measures to control the escalating prices.

Traders were of the view that the caretakers should have left the hike in POL price to the upcoming government, instead of giving a severe jerk to the common man.

The prices of essential items had tripled between October 1999 and November 2007. With further boost in prices in the last five months, the cost of living is set to go up further.

Consumers facing serious liquidity problems have already cut their purchases instead of buying items in bulk quantities.

The manufacturing sector, which enjoyed a field day during the past five months included cement, iron and steel, edible oil etc.

The price of average cement bag has surged to Rs242 from Rs210 on November 16, 2007 followed by fertiliser prices like DAP to Rs2,779 from Rs1,325 per 50 kg bag, urea price to Rs589 from Rs538 and steel bar (sariya) price to Rs80,000 per ton from Rs42,000.

Petrol price went up to Rs63 from Rs54 per litre, diesel to Rs44 from Rs38 per litre, power rate (commercial and residential) to Rs5 per KW from Rs4.5 and gas price to Rs251/mmbtu from Rs238.

In pulses, Dal Masoor rate has surged to Rs82 from Rs62 per kg in November followed by Masur (whole) to Rs70 from Rs51 per kg. Dal Arhar price has peaked to Rs75 from Rs64 per kg while gram pulse price rose to Rs48 from Rs44 per kg.

Basmati premium, which was priced at Rs75 per kg in November, now carries a price tag of Rs85 per kg followed by basmati broken price to Rs48 from Rs34 per kg.

Dalda cooking oil (5 litre) is now priced at Rs750 as compared to Rs530. Almost, all the branded ghee and cooking oil producers have been jacking up the rate frequently on the back of rising palm olien prices.

The 16-kg ghee tin is now selling at Rs1,800 as compared to Rs1,500 in November. Brooke Bond Supreme 250 grams now sell at Rs72 as compared to Rs65. All the tea packers had raised the prices in the aftermath of rising tea prices in Kenya.

Fresh milk became costlier to Rs36 from Rs34 per litre. The loose tea price has increased to Rs280 per kg from Rs240 per kg while the price of loose milk (powder) has touched Rs300 from Rs290 per kg.

There has been some relief in the prices of sugar, falling to Rs24-25 per kg from Rs30 per kg. However, there has been no big relief in the flour varieties. In November, atta fine mill and atta chakki were selling at Rs21 and Rs22 per kg as compared to current price of Rs24 per kg each. The only relief came in atta No 2.5 whose rate fell to Rs15-16 from Rs17 per kg.

Consumers had paid Rs22-24 per kg few months back when wheat shortage had hit the markets. Later, the government had increased the supply of wheat to the flour millers, besides introducing subsidised flour at Rs150 per 10 kg at the retail stores.

In spices, the price of red chilly (small) went up to Rs160 from Rs140 per kg while coriander price rose to Rs120 from Rs110 followed by dhania (crushed) to Rs130 from Rs100 per kg.

Clove price had been raised to Rs500 per kg from Rs400 per kg followed by black pepper price to Rs360 from Rs330 per kg.

Karachi Wholesalers Grocers Association chairman Anis Majeed said the caretakers had done the damage by raising the POL price thus giving a tough challenge to the new government on how to provide relief to the common man.

He said if the prices of goods, based on the international rates, cannot be controlled then there should be some strategy or policy to keep stability in the rates of local crops like wheat, sugar, rice, etc.