Ramazan sees marketplaces bustling with activity

KABUL (TOLOnews): The food markets in the capital were busy on the first day of the holy month of Ramadan.
On other days the food market in the capital has not very busy; but on the first day of the month of Ramadan, people were more engaged in purchasing food items in Kabul.
“Today is the first day of the month of Ramadan; people are buying their needed items for Ramadan, therefore our business is good and there is a crowd,” Samiullah, a shopkeeper in Kabul, told TOLOnews.
Some citizens in the capital are asking the caretaker government to take serious steps to prevent the increase in the price of food items during the month of Ramadan.
“We have started the first day of Ramadan well. Our request from the government is to pay serious attention to controlling the rates,” said Esmatullah, a Kabul resident.
“We ask the government to pay attention to rate control because the people are impoverished and should be able to make purchases,” said Hashem, another Kabul resident.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce has said that the price of food items during the month of Ramadan in the capital will be reviewed.
Nooruddin Azizi, the acting Minister of Industry and Commerce (MOIC), in a meeting with members of various trade unions, pledged to provide more facilities and support for business people.
Azizi said: “There is no low-quality material and high prices in Afghanistan today. Today, neither water is mixed with oil nor oil in water, which is a grace of God. If we also have some factories, they are under control.”
Nematullah Barakzai, an official of the municipality, on controlling the prices, said: “For about a month, there has been no significant change in the prices of raw materials and a very small percentage, perhaps two or three Afghanis in the prices of fuel and in the price of food items by fifty or a hundred Afghanis; but we are aware.”
Every year with the arrival of the holy month of Ramadan, the price of food items in the country’s markets increases.