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Tackling hike in essentials price

Mechanism needed to check it
BEHAVIOUR of the essentials markets of the capital city as elsewhere in the country has started to turn volatile with the advent of Ramadan.
Despite government assurances that with adequate stocks of essentials the prices should remain stable, kitchen markets of the city tell a different story. The main ingredients of iftar items including lentils, edible oil, onion, aubergine and related items have already gone dear.
The government and consumers, especially those in the fixed income bracket, are blaming the business people for the runaway price hike.
The business people, on the other hand, point their finger at the government, since, raises in energy and power tariffs have driven up transport costs, which have factored into the overall rise in prices. Add to these the non-economic factors like toll collection on goods at various points during transport, delays at traffic knots and so on.
Necessarily, the cumulative impact of all these factors is reflected in the further rise in price indices of essentials.
The Bangladesh tariff commission chairman at a meeting with business leaders blamed the unbridled price hike on the profiteering motive of traders.
Ritualistically, government leaders urge traders to be ethical in their business practices. In the same breath, they also warned them of harsh consequences in case of market manipulation. Unfortunately, neither method works.
Hanging price lists at the kitchen markets, surprise visits by officials and occasioned raids by mobile courts also hardly work.
Caught in the middle are the consumers who have to pay through the nose. It is time to come out of this vicious trap and look for alternative means to contain hike in artificially manipulated essentials markets.
To give relief to the consumer, the government should develop a failsafe mechanism to remove non-economic elements like middlemen, rent-seekers of various hues from the distribution chain of commodities. That will to a large measure go a long way in bringing down the essentials price.
At the same time, it should run fair price shops with adequate inventories and allow those to operate side by side with the existing market.
Along with these, consumer awareness needs to be raised to resist manipulation and profiteering by dishonest traders.