Days before Ramadan, Utility Stores hike ghee and oil prices

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Web Desk
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A shopping cart is pushed down the aisle in this illustration. — Reuters/File

  • Utility Stores notify new rates for ghee and oil.
  • Per notification, price of branded ghee and oil have been hiked.
  • Price of cooking oil increased from Rs6 to 9 per liter.
  • Rates for ghee increased by Rs7 per kg.


Utility Stores have hiked the prices of ghee and oil just days before the start of the holy month of Ramadan, said a notification issued in this regard on Friday.

Utility Stores have increased the prices of branded ghee and oil, the notification said, with the revised rates coming into effect immediately.

The price of cooking oil has been increased from Rs6 to 9 per litre, while ghee rates have been moved up by Rs7 per kg, the notification added.

It is pertinent to note the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, in a recent report, said inflation in the country reached a seven-month high, and in March, it rose to 9.05%.

Last month, sources said Prime Minister Imran Khan had prohibited concerned authorities from hiking ghee prices in Utility Stores across the country.

Following the prime minister's disapproval of the price hike, according to sources, the finance minister also backed the premier's decision. 

"Ghee is people's basic necessity; its price should not be increased," the finance minister had said.

The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) had earlier allowed an increase of Rs30 in the price, but after PM Imran Khan's directives, the commodity will set to be sold at Rs170 instead of Rs200 per kg at Utility Stores.

Separately, a Ramadan package worth Rs7.6 billion was approved by the ECC following a meeting chaired by then finance minister Abdul Hafeez Shaikh.