The magic in market
WITH the advent of the holy month of Ramadan, the kitchen markets in the capital have started to experience a magical rise in the prices of essentials. The government's move to hang a price chart at the kitchen markets in a bid to protect the consumers from the price cartels is not going to help in any way.
The commerce minister is bustling about these days to draw a battle line against unbridled price rise of essentials in the holy month of Ramadan. But the measures so far taken to stall the upward trajectory of the price line have not been reflected in the market.
The TCB started sales of basic commodities in the capital from August 19 with an insufficient supply, which may not be able to have a positive impact on the prices of essentials during Ramadan. Market intervention through the TCB was never strong enough to make a significant impact on the prices of essentials.
The businessmen assured the government as well as the people that they would refrain from raising the prices of essentials during the month of Ramadan. But the people have no confidence in such assurances because they feel that they had been betrayed by the businessmen many times in the past.
The prices of essentials witnessed a sharp rise in both the wholesale and the retail markets in the capital on Friday, just a day after the government had fixed the wholesale prices of some edible items. Taking the opportunity of weak market monitoring, the traders are charging higher prices.
The rise in prices of essentials on the eve of Ramadan, or of any festival, has become a recurrent phenomenon in our country because of the government's inaction. The sufferings are borne by poor consumers who have no alternative but submit to the profiteers.
Traders all over the world lower the prices of essentials on the eve of any festival, so that the common people can enjoy the festival. If anyone buys four litres of edible oil in Dubai on the eve of Ramadan, he will surely get one litre free because of Ramadan, even from any non-Muslim traders.
Islam urges maintenance of sanctity and austerity during the holy month of Ramadan. Irrational price hike targeting Ramadan is strictly prohibited in Islam. But the unscrupulous traders and profiteers care very little for these teachings. The government also takes it for granted that the people shall endure the burden of expenses for the sake of holy Ramadan.
The behaviour of the essentials market last Friday clearly indicates that the holy month of Ramadan is going to be a month of immense hardship for the people of limited income as the prices of almost all the essentials are spiraling out of control.
There is, in fact, no concrete way to handle a complex entity called market. Any government without effective tools for market intervention is helpless before the organised group behind such a tricky market situation.
Experts in this field opine that the government should effectively intervene in the market by fully reactivating the state-owned trading body -- TCB -- and strongly enforce the customer protection laws that provide stringent punitive measures for collusion.
It is a public expectation that the incumbent government, which is committed to the people to bring down the prices of essentials, will take some real steps to provide relief to the vast body of consumers during this particular stressful period.
The holy month of Ramadan is ordained as a period of prayer and penance for the Muslims. But the government could not provide any hope to the Muslims in Bangladesh that they would be able to devote themselves fully to meditation and worship without having to tackle any additional concerns in the form of rising prices.
A public impression is also growing fast that the reluctance of the government to intervene in the market is not due to fear of upsetting the normal marketing system but because it is more business friendly than the vast majority of consumers.
The failure of the BNP-led alliance government to control price spiraling of essentials, which hit people hard, turned the people strongly in favour of AL in the last election. The popularity of the immediate past caretaker government also suffered much due to their failure to control prices.
The food and disaster management minister frankly admitted that extortion was an important reason of price spiraling. He was even bold enough to disclose who the extortionists were and how they could operate with impunity. The government may face a real crisis of the confidence that the entire nation had reposed on it if it fails to stop extortion in markets.
The unbridled price hike of essentials is an area where the incumbent government is yet to make a positive impact. Ramadan, in fact, presents a big challenge for the government to prove its ability to push down the prices of essentials to within the reach of common people, which was a major election pledge of AL.
Price of essentials is a crucial issue that directly affects the life and living of the common people. So there must be no laxity on the part of the government in taking all-out steps to bring down the prices of essentials within the reach of the common people.
A.N.M. Nurul Haque is a columnist of The Daily Star.
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