Following the withdrawal of zero-rating on milk and fat-filled milk in the federal budget 2016-17, the dairy farmers have created an artificial shortage of the commodity in the city in order to increase its price, it is reliably learnt.
The residents are in a fix to buy one litre milk for Sehri and Iftar in the absence of the commodity on retail shops. The shop-owners have placed packaged milk on counters amid shortage of the commodity in open.
In a brief visit to various areas of the metropolis, majority of the dairy shops were seen out of milk and the shops where milk was available were found flooded with buyers. The buyers were seen lined-up to buy one litre milk. This also caused a traffic mess at some places. Some buyers complained that they were forced to buy the commodity on a rate fixed by the shop-owners and not the Karachi commissioner.
The Dairy and Cattle Farmers Association earlier split into two groups over price hike when Karachi former commissioner Shoaib Ahmed Siddiqui, after holding a meeting, fixed Rs 80 per litre price for milk in September 2015. The dairy farmers knocked at the door of the Sindh High Court (SHC) which directed them to approach the Karachi commissioner in this regard.
Talking to Pakistan Today, a resident of Malir Kalaboard complained the shortage of milk because of limited supply. “Whenever I visit the dairy shops located at Malir Kalaboard bus stop, I am told by the shop-owner that the milk stock has been finished because of low supply and high demand,” the resident said.
Other residents of North Nazimabad narrated the same story.
“Milk is not available on dairy shops. The shops where milk is available are flooded with buyers and they are forced to pay Rs 85 for one litre milk. But the Karachi commissioner has fixed one litre price of milk for Rs 80,” the complainant maintained.
The version of dairy shop owners is no more different from the consumers. They complained limited supply and high demand. A dairy shop owner in Gulshan-e-Iqbal, when questioned about shortage of milk, claimed that the demand has been increased in the first two days of Ramzan but the situation will get better in the coming days.
Malir District Deputy Commissioner (DC) Syed Muhammad Ali Shah, when contacted, said that there is no shortage of milk in the district and he has not received any complaint regarding the shortage of milk so far. However, he vowed that he will assign his assistant commissioners to look into this matter.
Central District DC Fareeduddin, when reached for comments, verified shortage of milk in the district and the entire city. He adopted a view that the shortage is a result of panic buying.
“The consumers are buying milk in bulk in the first two days of Ramzan that is creating a shortage of the commodity in the market,” the DC said, adding that “the situation will improve in the coming days.”
“I have assigned my assistant commissioner to look into this matter and as per their report, the milk stock exhausted because of panic buying,” the central district DC maintained.
“Usually, we observe low consumption of milk in Ramzan because tea shops remained close whole day, but this time we are witnessing a shortage of commodity,” Fareeduddin observed.
When asked about malicious agenda of dairy farmers for increasing milk prices by creating shortage, he claimed that the dairy farmers tried to increase milk prices before Ramzan but the Karachi commissioner actively played his role and stopped them from increasing the price.
However, the central district DC predicted that the price of milk and milk-related products will increase after Ramzan.