Grocery merchants reject 2% profit cap, demand 10% margin and open-market pricing

Profit by Pakistan Today reported that the Punjab Grocery Merchants Association (PGMA) has reopened its dispute with the provincial government over a plan to restrict retail margins to 2% per kilogramme on every grocery item. The body dismissed the proposed Rs2 per kilogramme margin as negligible. Its central and divisional units have also turned down the new deputy commissioner price schedules, which cover rice, ghee, cooking oil and pulses.

The association has asked Punjab Price Control Committee Chairperson Salma Butt to call a provincial-level meeting without delay. It also wants retailers guaranteed a minimum 10% profit margin, along with open-market rates used to fix the prices of white chickpeas, flour, sugar, ghee, rice and pulses.

The association's central patron-in-chief said the government set gram lentils at Rs220 per kilogramme, although the wholesale price stood at Rs260 per kilogramme. He wondered how a retailer could sell them at Rs220 after buying at Rs260 per kilogramme, pointing out that transport, loading and unloading labour and shopping bag costs must be covered before any retailer profit.