Pakistan’s former finance minister Asad Umar said that the federal government would conduct separate surveys for urban and rural areas to measure the inflation rate.

This, he said, while chairing a meeting of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs.

Umar said that the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) has changed the calendar year of inflation to 2015-16. The chairman predicted that the inflation rate is likely to be increased on a weekly basis in the next five months.

“We had summoned a report from Competition Commission of Pakistan over the hike of rates in five sectors, which spotlights the monopoly in the prices of flour and sugar,” he said.

Later, Umar announced that the federal government would conduct surveys in urban and rural areas separately to observe the fluctuations in the inflation rate. Meanwhile, Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet has approved separate proposals for simplification of tax regime for non-resident companies investing in the local debt market, revision of cess rate on tobacco for the year 2019-20 and payment of outstanding amount of Rs5.85 billion as gas subsidy to the fertiliser industry.

The approvals were given at a meeting of the Economic Coordination Committee of the Cabinet which met here at the Cabinet Block with Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance & Revenue Dr. Abdul Hafeez Shaikh in the chair.

The ECC was also briefed on the wheat situation in the country and it was pointed out that while prices were stable in most parts of the country, there were certain areas and places such as Karachi where the wheat and flour prices had escalated.

News Network International