People are already being pushed to the limit amid the unprecedented price hike, especially food inflation, but the government functionaries want to burden them further by increasing the flour price, reported 24NewsHD TV channel on Tuesday.

In this connection, the Punjab Food Department has proposed raising the 20-kg flour bag price from Rs860 to Rs950 – representing an increase of Rs4.50 per kilogram.

According to the food department, the per maund wheat release price for the flour millers should be Rs1,700 from the current level of Rs1,475.

The price of wheat procured by the provincial government currently stands at Rs1,931 per maund  

If approved, the subsidy allocated for flour would be reduced to Rs17.90 billion. 

But there is a question: Why the food authorities are eager to see an increase in price as the suggestion should have come from the finance department in case of any fiscal crunch.

The Pakistanis are witnessing bearable inflation amid ever-increasing joblessness as the tomatoes price reached Rs200 per kilogram in Karachi last week.

When compared with other cities, the per kilogram price difference to detriment of the Karachi residents was as follows: Sargodha and Bannu Rs100; Peshawar and Khuzdar Rs90; Lahore Rs70; Gujranwala, Faisalabad and Sukkur Rs60; Sialkot and Bahawalpur Rs50; Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Multan and Hyderabad Rs40.

The abovementioned price difference shows that the second-worst affected cities were Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Multan and Hyderabad with the citizens paying Rs160. Meanwhile, the price in Sialkot and Bahawalpur is Rs150 to make them third on this list.

On a side note, the country witnessed up to 15 percent increase in the prices of 25 essential items during the last week after Prime Minister Imran took notice of record inflation.

When compared with the last year, the prices of 41 out of 51 essential items have increased by up to 86 percent with the food inflation badly hitting the poor.

Meanwhile, the PTI government silently increased the petroleum levy for petrol by Rs1.14 to Rs28.46.  This levy is besides the Rs15.11 sales tax the consumers are paying for one litre of petrol.

In this way, the total revenue collected by the government on one litre of petrol through petroleum levy, sales tax and duties currently stands at Rs54.14 when the actual procurement price is Rs50.39.