Mahmudur Rahman

The consumer is not amused. With Ramadan approaching, apprehension mounts and it now appears that the beleaguered citizen will have to dig deeper into their already scantily filled pockets to come up with extra cash to buy essentials.

Somehow, the strategy of balancing demand and supply is not working amid the new dynamics that are at play in the markets. A mixture of international prices, bad crops, uninhibited graft, cost of doing business and a sorry tendency to make super profits is hitting everyone hard.

The idea of market monitoring and display of prices is falling flat on its face as there really seems to be no mechanisms of implementation. The best comment came from a grocery seller who bluntly said that unless the government fixes prices and ensures sales at those rates, prices just would not come down.

By now the hapless consumer has become indifferent to the usual comments of sellers when asked about the reason for price increases. Everything from the weather, traffic jams to a blame game between wholesale and retailers appears to be responsible for the price increase.

On Sunday, green chilli prices went soaring up and yet while it sold at Tk 120 per kg

at the BDR outlets, Dhanmondi PQS prices were in the range of Tk 170. Now that is truly incredible. Where do these two outlets source the product from that there should be a Tk 50 difference per kg? And that, of course is just one case in point.

One answer was provided by the affable minister Dr Abdur Razzak who probably put the cat among the pigeons by stating up front the effect of graft on prices. According to his discussions with a truck owner, Tk 21,000 is paid in different tolls for a truck that runs from Jessore to Tangail, leaving the owner with a Tk 7000 return from the journey. Startling as the numbers may be, the concept of graft is nothing new and it will be interesting to see the outcome of these facts being handed over to the intelligence agencies.

Businessmen have failed to keep up to their promises of not making exorbitant profits or raising prices unduly, sometimes within days of sitting with the commerce minister. The Minister was clear in stating that the government does not want to interfere by fixing prices and prefers policy intervention. Doing away with duty has already been identified as one step that won't reach the consumer.

New strategies are required. In the meantime, the answer has to be in clamping down quickly and hard on graft on the highways and introduction of a whole host of BDR shop-type establishments. In the long term, efficiently run cooperatives jointly sponsored by government and farmers is really an area to look at. (The writer is a former head of corporate and regulatory affairs of British-American Tobacco Bangladesh and former CEO of Bangladesh Cricket Board. He can be reached at mahmudrahman@gmail.com)\