With Ramadan approaching, syndicates of hoarders, importers and wholesalers have reared their head in the kitchen markets.
Although it is customary in our country that prices of almost all the essential products have gone up in the holy month exorbitantly, concerned authorities have failed to break the back of the so-called syndicates every year.
This time it is no difference. According to reports, an unholy nexus of dishonest traders and suppliers has already started stockpiling essentials ahead of Ramadan in order to create an artificial crisis of necessary commodities to fleece consumers.
To bring relief to consumers, the government, however, has established a task force to monitor and review the market situation and supply system of daily necessities during the upcoming Ramadan. The task force will regularly visit various markets, warehouses, cold storages and other places of supply chain to keep the prices of essentials at a reasonable level.
Additionally, the task force is also charged with ensuring minimal price difference at the production, wholesale and consumer levels and will hold meetings with stakeholders. After completing the daily monitoring, the task force will send reports to the Commodity Price Review and Forecasting Cell of the Ministry of Commerce and the central control room of the National Consumer Rights Protection Department.
But what we previously have seen is that whatever the government intended to do to monitor the markets has not gone well. As a result, consumers have to experience a severe hardship due to skyrocketing prices of essential goods especially in the month of Ramadan.
If fact, consumers have already started feeling the pinch. For instance, bottled soybean oil has nearly disappeared from retail shops across the country just ahead of Ramadan. This is because a specific syndicate dealing with soybean oil has been trying to destabilize the edible oil market to rip off consumers.
Not only soybean oil, prices of other Ramadan products such as gram, onion, lentil and dates have also soared owing to the fact of the market manipulation by unscrupulous traders. Even prices of different varieties of rice have also moved up sharply causing great suffering to the low-income people.
Meanwhile, winter vegetables which were seen selling at unexpectedly lowest prices a few days ago have now become dearer. These vegetables like cauliflower, cabbage, carrots, gourds, potatoes, broad beans and tomatoes are being sold at higher prices than earlier.
The good news is that the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) has started selling daily essentials at subsidised rates throughout the country on the eve of Ramadan. This is a great relief for the consumers.
We plead with the government to effectively monitor the markets in order to keep the essentials' prices at reasonable level.
