Contrary to expectations, the observance of Ramzan this year started with the familiar practice
of undue profiteering and price escalations by traders
Price monitoring important as Ramzan begins
Samiul Haque
For the last couple years, people have blissfully experienced that the government tried to match its pre-Ramzan assurances of no price escalations during Ramzan with real activism to that end. This was necessary because in the past a sort of tradition was noted in the country that prices of different everyday essential consumption commodities would go up even before Ramzan and start skyrocketing during the Ramzan for no rhyme or reason. Thus, the comparative relief people found on this score during recent years, was appreciated.
But a difference is noted this year as prices of these goods, specially of kitchen commodities, started risng at least two weeks before Ramzan. But the prices are seen to be veritably shooting up as Ramzan has started. So, it is important to nip this trend in the bud before it can be well established . This writer visited a kitchen market on the first day of Ramzan and found prices there more than doubled overnight. The same was the case with some other Ramzan essentials. But why ? There has been no long standing disruption in the supply chain or other abnormalities to justify the almost overnight big rise in prices. Exploring the reason one will be inexorably led to the conclusion that only the lust for super normal profit on the part of the sellers and nothing else is behind the very unjustified and conscienceless price rise.
Normally, one would expect that economic factors such as scarcities of goods against their higher demand, snags in production or distribution and the better purchasing power of consumers, as responsible for driving up prices. But to a very large extent and most of the time, price rises in Bangladesh have no connection to such economic factors. Non economic factors such as sheer greed, profiteering instincts and the same getting facilitated by the view that markets should function on their own under free market principles with the least intervention from the state, these help prices to rise . Therefore, this government should do well to learn from these experiences of previous governments and their willful or otherwise dereliction of duty to sustain close monitoring over markets and the due law enforcement to that end.
This writer remembers well the period ( under a caretaker government) when, indeed, prices in the kitchen markets were fast normalizing from the daily arrival of BDR and police into the markets and their talking to shop keepers and even squatter traders of perishable goods on the road sides. They would do such things as asking a seller of cauliflower why he demanded ten taka more for a piece in the afternoon than what he demanded in the morning.
They would ask retailers why there were demanding at retail levels significantly higher prices than they should after keeping their reasonable profits. All of these things certainly had an effect. The traders did not like it any but they were obliged to restrain their profiteering instincts and the same paid dividends to the previously badly exploited consumers. But no sooner, this vigilance was withdrawn that the same old fashioned profiteering crept back and started flourishing again.
One understands that price control for the time being cannot be charge of only one ministry such as commerce. It has to be the collective charge of several ministries working in coordination. But their main lookout for the present should be coordinated actions to take care of the non economic reasons for price rise. For example, the Home Ministry can operate the police and other law enforcers like in the past to regularly visit the kitchen markets to discourage profiteering and to nab the toll collectors at various stages who play a part behind the price rise. The home ministry should use its powers to discourage the taking of unfair charges for services. For instance, the CNG operated baby taxi drivers in Dhaka never agree to take fare from passengers based on their fare meters. They arbitrarily take fare from the users of their service. Why this gross abuse has been tolerated year after year is a big unknown. The bus owners also do not agree to reduce their fare in spite of reduction or stability in the prices of the fuels used by them. But these higher charges paid by people for transportation also create great hardships for them by most unfairly pushing up their costs of living. So, the government should also aim to not only use law enforcement people to keep in line the sellers of essentials goods but should direct them to also take actions sternly against service providers who are presently fleecing the people most unconscionably and unfairly.
The communications ministry on its part can be directed to take all measures on a sustainable basis to aid in the keeping of the supply conditions smooth for all types of essential goods. And the commerce ministry in tandem with the finance ministry should be always doing their best in taking fiscal measures to keep the prices of imported commodities on the lower side.
The writer is a contributor to The Independent
