While we all understand the situation, we must be aware of some issues which are very important for the economy and the consumers. Crackdown on trading houses has caused panic among the business community and the import of essential commodities has stalled or decreased significantly. It was even heard that at present there are only 3 weeks' stock of soybean oil available in the country. Here, we must be extremely cautious that the whole process does not dissuade honest businessmen and traders from carrying out normal business activities. Otherwise it will create supply shortages in the market in the short run and will also have far reaching impact in the long run. Supply scarcity may take the price level to abnormal high and dishonest businessmen will take this opportunity further to make unlawful gain. The consumers and the general public will suffer mostly from this disaster. Not only so, it will impact the banks and financial sector as most of these imports have been financed by the commercial banks. Also, when importers will shy away from their trading activities, money circulation in the economy would slowdown, resulting in reduced economic activities. All of this will put serious dent on our revenue collection as well as GDP growth prospects.

It should be emphasised that there cannot be any compromise with the dishonest businessmen who have been found guilty of hoarding and selling adulterated food items. They have to be taken to task and must be given exemplary punishment. The crackdown of warehouses has brought a process of accountability, which was not there previously and there was hardly anybody to look after the interest of consumers and general public. However, my concern here is we have to make sure that the whole accountability process must not create obstacle for the honest businessmen to continue their normal business activities. The crackdown and raids will have to continue, but at the same time positive steps have to be taken to reassure the business community to continue to do uninterrupted business. The whole accountability process has to be established where, no one can be above the law and the criminals have to be punished and the honest businesspeople have to be incentivised.

In this connection, let us draw your attention to another important issue. It has been noticed in various forums that an effort is being made to exaggerate the actual impact of the rise in price level. One should not fail to ignore the fact that during the last 3/4 years price hike of commodities have also been fueled by tremendous rise in international prices. These commodities are being imported and distributed by business houses who have to add up their margins in order to sustain. Through the efforts of all these stakeholders, a commodity is being made available to the consumer and without the effort of all of them the entire economic activity would not have taken place. By ignoring the effect of international price rise and the efforts of various distribution agents, many economists are portraying an unreal level where the price of a commodity should be. This false hope is not only irresponsible, but also dangerous. To bring down the prices of the commodities to an unreal level, the government either has to give subsidy or create an excess-supply situation. We must realise that, we are practicing market economy and the market price would have to be determined through consumer' choices. Government should focus more on the mechanism through which the price is determined rather than the price itself. It should focus on whether there are enough market players to weed out any possibility of monopoly or curtail who could artificially manipulate the price. It should also focus on various stakeholders on the entire value chain to make sure that they are adequately compensated for their effort. Without strong stakeholders in the entire value chain, the process of economic activity will fall apart. Irresponsible comments not backed by proper homework can create `popularity value' not the ` market or economic value'.

In Bangladesh, we have been seriously practicing market economy only for the last two decades. We have a general misconception that open market economy suggests independence from everything and accountability towards none. From this misconception, our private sector has grown without the supervision of any credible institutions. The situation has also been complicated by the patronage of political ill motives. The current effort of the government to crack down on the illegal trading activities is a beginning of the process for bringing accountability. But we must remember that the overall objective of the process of accountability is not to curtail economic activities, but to develop it further, more equitably. That is why this process must make sure that business activities can continue to grow, honest businessmen can become more active and dishonest ones are adequately punished.

The writer is a banker