The decision taken by the Government to reimpose price controls on all essential consumer goods would be welcomed by a public placed at their wits’ end unable to pay for their basic foods due to soaring prices. The prices of almost all essential food items are today beyond the reach of the average citizen which feeds into ongoing protest campaigns calling for the Government to go.
It is indeed puzzling as to why the Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) which is being maintained by public funds all at once relinquished its responsibilities to keep check on the prices of goods and ease the public burden. Do we have other State bodies too similarly existing in name only but looked after by the public?
Addressing the media, former Cooperative Services, Marketing Development and Consumer Protection State Minister Gunapala Ratnasekera stated that in order to prevent the escalation of prices of essential consumer items, the Government had decided to slap a maximum price limit on all such items. He said even though the Government was facing a crisis, it has decided to take steps to protect the consumers through the stabilization of prices. Although the CAA had recently withdrawn from imposing price controls, in future it will impose a maximum price limit on all locally produced goods.
However, not just locally produced goods, the CAA should at least exercise supervision on certain imported items that are in daily use by consumers. Since the advent of the market economy consumer patterns, goods once placed in the ‘luxury’ category are today in common use. The CAA should particularly bring under its scrutiny the price of medicines which have increased several fold and with the recent decision by Health Minister Prof. Channa Jayasumana to permit a 69 per cent increase in medicines, the people are hamstrung, unable to afford even life- saving drugs.
True, importers have to keep pace with the rising dollar rate and are not in a position to maintain stable drug prices as a result. However, Pharmaceutical companies made it good during the Coronavirus pandemic, going by the long winding queues that were witnessed opposite pharmacies and from the highly lucrative home delivery services. Therefore, the Government should prevail on these companies to be a little more generous and provide drugs and medicines at affordable prices to the people.
The CAA has also made a blunder by imposing maximum prices on certain varieties of rice when already their present prices are a shade below the imposed maximum prices. Now the traders can raise the price of already low-priced rice varieties to match the maximum price level, making the consumer pay more than what they had been already paying before. This anomaly should be rectified so that the consumer is not cheated.
A constant check should be kept on the trend of price increases. Today, prices vary almost on a daily basis, particularly with regard to imported items and traders and shopkeepers tend to exploit the public making maximum use of the current economic situation and with the removal of price controls on imported goods. The situation is so bad that the same item fetches a different price in two different shops, giving a clear indication as to the level of exploitation. A close watch should also be kept on the quality of goods, with adulterated goods now flooding the market, the recent complaint being that even diesel stocks have been tampered with, with motorists claiming that their original mileage per litre had dropped recently in the middle of the fuel crisis.
Complaints of hoarding too should be looked into by the CAA with the chronic shortage of LP Gas too attributed to unscrupulous elements making a fast buck by hoarding stocks to be sold at higher prices to the wealthy who could well afford the increase. The CAA has a duty to ensure that traders do not sell goods at unconscionable prices and move in where necessary to take tough action against exploitation. It should at least now try to salvage its reputation by playing a more proactive role.
The CAA to all intents and purposes has been rendered redundant following its withdrawal from its primary price control duties, although the public spends Rs 800 million a year to maintain it. At least for this reason, the CAA should now work to protect the public from profiteering black marketeers. It is, after all, headed by an ex-military officer who was earlier seen on television talking tough to a member of the rice mafia.
The economic crisis has certainly hit the poor, the middle class and even the upper middle classes badly. The situation is really grave in the villages where most have to contend with one square meal a day. A tragic incident was reported in a village where a farmer, unable to provide food for his little children committed suicide. Hence the Government’s decision to impose price controls on a gamut of items and also enhance the Samurdhi allowance and relief payments to vulnerable sections of the populace is a timely one, since the situation has taken a turn for the worse.
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