Editorial
Deepening sugar crisis
Mismanagement and bungling at their worst
MORE than a week and a half after Ed-ul Fitr, the scandalous sugar situation far from abating has only deepened and ramified with newer features as the root cause of the problem remains wholly unattended to. From bungling with delivery orders, through playing Ping-Pong between mutually recriminating millers and wholesalers, to trading of threats of action by government and shutdown by mill owners and wholesalers, the price of sugar kept soaring beyond the reach of the common consumer.
What is claimed to be in abundant supply despite hoarding and artificial scarcities, and priced at Tk. 39 per kg at mill-gate, is reportedly selling even at Tk. 64. While the government is back-tracking from arrest order against a reported group of eight refiners and wholesalers, apparently under pressure from the business community and the TCB intervention is apologetic, two committees have been formed at long last to 'identify the culprits' in seeming compromise. This is perhaps sought to be explained away as letting the market forces work only after rubbing the issue sour leaving the real manipulators and those who kept them company off the hook.
The entire distribution system being flawed, undefined, loosely-knit and unwieldy, a vast scope is built into it for all sorts of supply and price manipulations. The delivery order (DO) procedure as it gets applied becomes a virtual method of foul play. At every step, as the DO changes hands, and it does many times over, an additional cut would be charged by the ever changing possessor. Naturally, the gap between ex-mill price and the ultimate price-tag has vastly yawned.
It is strange that the millers issue DO in advance of the production schedule to garner income in advance of the delivery. That is the first imbalance created in the supply chain. Then a few banks on the strength of the rather uncertain DO provide loan to dealers which is blocking money really and, in a way fueling inflation.
As an intelligence operator has put it succinctly, "Having DOs in hand but not getting the delivery means the produce is being hoarded". There is an allegation too, that mill owners increase prices off an on. Why must they?
Either the DO system is replaced or it is reworked and reformulated.
We believe the government faces the stiffest test to-date, in fact, a litmus test of its ability to keep the price and availability of a daily essential stable. It would do well to hold the line or loose the grip widely in terms of market prices.
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