The CPD has addressed a crucially important issue at a time when erratic market behaviour and spiralling prices of essentials are putting tremendous pressure on the consumers in general. However, the CPD findings are in a way a statement of the obvious, because it has always been thought that the market was being manipulated in some way or the other. The CPD findings supported by statistics now provide a clear picture of how the cartel of importers is operating and where things are going wrong.

The market has been influenced negatively by the anomalies and irregularities that the cartel has resorted to. By all indications, there have been under-invoicing, price-fixing and supply manipulation, which are responsible for the unusual market behaviour.

The governments in the past were by and large dismissive of the popular demand that some control over the market be established with a view to halting the price spiral. The government plays the role of a facilitator in a free market economy, but the situation changes drastically when a cartel is formed to monopolise the import of essentials. The small importers are eliminated from the scene to a great extent.

So, the CPD has very rightly recommended that the government encourage the commercial banks to extend support to the small importers to import essential commodities and thus break the monopoly of the big importers. The surveillance on the part of the government must also be enhanced through regular monitoring of the international prices of imported essential commodities.

Keeping the prices of essentials within the common people's reach has to be a matter of top priority for the government. However, we believe the government should approach the issue all thoughtfully. It has to plug the loopholes in the system in a planned way and ensure that nobody can manipulate the market.