Not a good deal

July 15, 2013

198

Citizens irked over overpriced substandard products at Ramadan Bazaars

Although the monitoring departments have been performing their duties diligently at Ramazan Bazaars, the problem of substandard and ‘B’ grade commodities being sold at ‘A’ grade rates persists and vendors continue to sell stale fruits and vegetables openly.

Pakistan Today discussed this problem with various officials of market committees at several temporary settlements. Most of them were of the view that in the morning session, better quality and standardized items were usually sold and in the afternoon, only the leftover items were available for customers.

Some of them added that many vendors have adopted tricky ways to cheat both customers and market committee officials, such as displaying fresh items on the upper layer of their stocks but then continuing to sell the other lower quality goods at the same rate. They said that they are trying to remain vigilant throughout the day and revising rate cards by repeatedly checking the quality of items, but the problem remains that many vendors try to use Ramazan Bazaars to sell their leftover or stale commodities.

A market committee inspector said that they have started encouraging regular vendors to conduct business at Ramazan Bazaars to improve the quality of the goods available at these public facility sites. Hopefully, marking the stalls and registering all vendors will begin next week and help improve the quality of items in the Ramazan Bazaars. The inspector admitted, however, that this problem needs a special strategy and strict implementation.

At Ramazan Bazaars in farther flung areas such as ShalimarTown, popular brand varieties are often not for sale, replaced instead by unknown labels or imitation brands with identical names. This has led to many customers mistakenly purchasing goods such as syrup, ketchup or masalas without realizing they were not brand name, and then being refused when they tried to return the items to vendors.

On Monday, the prices of vegetables and fruits were inclining an almost five to 15 percent increase has been noticed in most items. A survey conducted by Pakistan Today at various Ramadan Bazaars found that the bulk flour supply has been continued as per usual, and flour was available until the evening at Rs 315 per 10 kilogram bag. This same flour, however, is being sold as higher quality flour in open markets at the rate of Rs 335 per 10 kg.

Fruit rates include grapes at Rs 220 to Rs 240 per kg, bananas at Rs 70-100 per dozen, mangoes at Rs 60-80, peaches at Rs 60 to Rs 70, dates at Rs 160, sweet melon at Rs 70 per kg, and plums at Rs 120. Mutton was being sold at Rs 460, beef at Rs 300 and chicken at Rs 200 per kg.

Basmati Rice (Super New) was available at Rs 100 per kg, and Basmati Rice (386) was at Rs 65 per kg. Gram Pulse was found to be Rs 55 per kg, Pulse Mash (washed) was at Rs 110 per kg, and Pulse Mash (unwashed) was at Rs 105 per kg. Basan was being sold at Rs 58 per kg, Pulse Masoor at Rs 90 per kg, and Pulse Mong at Rs 107 per kg.