Minister, advisor on prices

At a press conference held on Wednesday to brief newsmen about the outcome of Bangladesh Expo-London, commerce minister Altaf Hossain dropped a bombshell claiming that the domestic price level remains steady. While admitting that rising onion and pulse prices are a cause for concern, the minister waxed political in reminding that the onion price had soared to Tk 60 per kilo during AL rule. Does it mean then that a hike up to Tk 60 is admissible?

If newspaper reports are anything to go by, Barkat Ullah Bulu believes that it's a handful of city-dwellers that raise any hue and cry over prices, ordinary people are hardly bothered. For instance, he suggests, rural people are happy over higher rice prices, because these fetch them increased purchasing power to afford essentials at increased prices in turn.

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The current prices of essentials are on a skyrocketing spiral across the board building up on an upswing that originating in the oil price hike gathered momentum through higher import prices and increased transport costs to reach the present plateau. But the new spurt in prices is the direct result of the pre-Ramadan surge in speculative trading.

If the commerce ministry's attitude is to blame the higher prices on external factors washing the hands off the domestic obligations, then our approach to resolving the price crisis would be widely off-the-mark.

If we have to wait till the passage of the consumer rights protection law which has been eight years in the making to combat hoarding, then God help us! We urge the government to initiate steps that ensure effective marketing intelligence, secure cooperation from the trading community in return for security offered to them, and checkmate hoarding that leads to market distortions.

The inter-ministerial committee that is said to be in place should gear up its activities with two specific targets in mind: first, strengthen the supply side in keeping with Ramadan related demands; and secondly, effect maximum coordination between different market monitoring agencies to hold the price-line at an affordable level.