The Utility Stores Corporation of Pakistan (USCP) has notified all the utility stores in an official letter to increase the prices of flour.
Accordingly, the price of a 20 kg bag of flour has risen from Rs. 800 to Rs. 980 and that of a 10 kg bag has gone up from Rs. 400 to Rs. 490.
The price of flour in the open market ranges between Rs. 1,100 and Rs. 1,350, and the letter detailed that all the regular and franchised stores should follow these revised prices.
To prevent stores from stockpiling and selling their existing stocks of flour at the revised rates, accounts officers have been instructed to visit warehouses and stores personally to prepare the price variations and stocks and report back to the USCP.
The federal cabinet had approved a subsidy package to maintain the price of a 20 kg bag of flour at utility stores at Rs. 800 in a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif last month after flour prices had reached Rs 1,520 per 20 kg bag in Islamabad.
