Expensive Ramadan eat
Come Ramazan, and the price of food goes through the roof. The holy month has become synonymous with the unholy greed of the bazaar. In many other countries, such occasions are used by traders to offer generous discounts to consumers to make the observance of rituals affordable. But in Pakistan, exploiters have no qualms about fleecing customers at such times.
In fact, this year the sugar millers forced the government to halve the general sales tax rather than see their profit margins reduced to bring the commodity within the reach of the common man. This, when one rule of thumb has it that on average a sugar-mill owner makes enough in a year to set up another outlet.
Nevertheless, it is the state?s responsibility to look after the minimum food needs of its people at all times. Ramazan-related food subsidies have never worked because of a defective delivery system. Such schemes add to the hardship of the poor who are made to stand in long queues for hours, often in the scorching heat, only to return home empty-handed because others have beaten them to it. There is another unsavoury side to the story. Some of us have turned the month of fasting into a month-long food festival. eat eat eat eat eat eat
Considering the way in which food is gorged at dawn and dusk by both the haves and the have-nots it is not surprising that food items otherwise in adequate supply become scarce overnight. This increase in demand spurs the hoarding of Ramazan-related items, causing them to be in limited supply in the market, thus aggravating shortages and resulting in price hikes.
http//www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/pakistan/16-expensive-ramazan-hs-03
What are your favorite foods when you break your fast in the evening???
