LAHORE: Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Food Security Jamshed Iqbal Cheema on Wednesday said the government was devising a comprehensive strategy to ensure the provision of daily use items to the masses on subsidized rates. Addressing a press conference here, he said a price control mechanism was being evolved under the federal government to provide food items on controlled rates and real benefit of subsidy be transferred to the most needy. Jamshed Iqbal Cheema said the mechanism would ensure provision of flour at subsidized rate of Rs 44 per kilogram.
The food department and PASSCO would purchase the items directly including cooking oil and pulses and make available on subsidized rates. He said inflation was a constant phenomenon as economies were badly affected due to Covid-19 pandemic and the people of country had also to face inflation. He, however, said that Pakistan was included in five countries where economic growth remained positive in Covid-19 pandemic and it had to face less inflation due to government policies and steps taken in this regard. He said the government was taking solid measures to control dollar rate by increasing production capacity and exports. He said the steps would also help in inflation and price hike. When the PTI came into power, US dollar was trading at Rs 128 which was a result of poor economic policies of the previous government.
The country’s exports had come to lowest level in the previous tenure which caused continuous increase in dollar rate. He said the present government had been paying special attention to increase country’s exports and a subsidy of Rs 115 billion had been given to textile sector. He said that volume of remittances from expatriates was continuously increasing which played a key role in stabilizing the economy. He said the country was moving forward under the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan as provision of facilities to the masses was part of PTI’s manifesto. Network of utility stores was also being expanded to extend facilities to the people of the country, he said adding that establishment of utility stores in Balochistan province was also being done. To a question, he said the country was on the verge of collapse with a huge current account deficit when PTI took into the government as it had worked hard while taking tough decisions to control corruption. The country would get more economic growth and stability in governance due to the continuity of the present government policies in next two years, he added.