The blacklisted rice millers

It is welcome to know that the government has made a list of some 16,000 rice millers who hoarded rice illegally to manipulate its price. As punishment to these millers, the Food Minister Qamrul Islam the day before yesterday said, the government would not procure rice from these millers for the next three years. There is little doubt that price of rice was manipulated centering this year’s flooding in Sylhet’s haor region and elsewhere.

At that time, standing Boro crops were destroyed by floods and as a result of this, it was assumed, that price of rice would increase. Taking this as an excuse, soon the rice market in the country became volatile and the price of coarse rice started selling at more than Tk. 43 per kg. But this variety, before the manipulation of the market, used to be sold at below Tk 30 per kg. And this is not first time we have seen such manipulation of price of an essential item.

In the past not only rice, business syndicates increased price of different items picking up this excuse or that. Though businessmen hugely monopolized the market, we hardly have seen any example by the government to free the market from this monopoly. That is why it is often called Bangladesh is a businessman’s market, not a consumer’s one. But it is the responsibility of the government to make it consumers-friendly, by ensuring that their rights are well protected.

Though the price of different varieties of rice is decreasing due to the lifting of tariff on rice import, the fact is the decrease is not optimum and the government must rein in the dishonest businessmen to make the rice market stable. This the government could do by creating rice’s sufficient stock. The Food Minister said the government's rice stock will reach 8-10 lakh tonnes in August next, while 12 lakh tonnes in September.

If that happens, the government would have control over the rice price in the market. Its effort to make larger the stock on the one hand and taking punishing measures to contain the syndicate of millers would hopefully keep the rice price within the purchasing capacity of the common people.

Besides, for increasing rice production in the country, the government should take up more farmers’ friendly agricultural policy. One of them would be procuring rice directly from the farmers rather than the syndicated millers. As the government has taken a decision that it would not procure rice from the blacklisted 16,000 millers, we think this step should benefit the farmers.   

 

The blacklisted rice millers

It is welcome to know that the government has made a list of some 16,000 rice millers who hoarded rice illegally to manipulate its price. As punishment to these millers, the Food Minister Qamrul Islam the day before yesterday said, the government would not procure rice from these millers for the next three years. There is little doubt that price of rice was manipulated centering this years flooding in Sylhets haor region and elsewhere. At that time, standing Boro crops were destroyed by floods and as a result of this, it was assumed, that price of rice would increase. Taking this as an excuse, soon the rice market in the country became volatile and the price of coarse rice started selling at more than Tk. 43 per kg. But this variety, before the manipulation of the market, used to be sold at below Tk 30 per kg. And this is not first time we have seen such manipulation of price of an essential item. In the past not only rice, business syndicates increased price of different items picking up this excuse or that. Though businessmen hugely monopolized the market, we hardly have seen any example by the government to free the market from this monopoly. That is why it is often called Bangladesh is a businessmans market, not a consumers one. But it is the responsibility of the government to make it consumers-friendly, by ensuring that their rights are well protected. Though the price of different varieties of rice is decreasing due to the lifting of tariff on rice import, the fact is the decrease is not optimum and the government must rein in the dishonest businessmen to make the rice market stable. This the government could do by creating rices sufficient stock. The Food Minister said the governments rice stock will reach 8-10 lakh tonnes in August next, while 12 lakh tonnes in September. If that happens, the government would have control over the rice price in the market. Its effort to make larger the stock on the one hand and taking punishing measures to contain the syndicate of millers would hopefully keep the rice price within the purchasing capacity of the common people. Besides, for increasing rice production in the country, the government should take up more farmers friendly agricultural policy. One of them would be procuring rice directly from the farmers rather than the syndicated millers. As the government has taken a decision that it would not procure rice from the blacklisted 16,000 millers, we think this step should benefit the farmers.