Editorial
Force has little place in a free market
Some prudent steps needed
The adviser for food Tapan Chowdhury has told the media that the government would seek intervention from the law enforcement agencies if its efforts to keep prices of essentials under control do not achieve the desired result. We understand the words of the adviser are directed against the hoarders of essential commodities and market manipulators. No doubt, hoarding and manipulative marketing interference must be fended off energetically. However, we would like to pronounce a cautionary note against application of force that is indiscriminatory and can prove counter-productive insofar as the demand-supply equations go, on which basically depends stability of prices. Notwithstanding all kinds of measures taken by the caretaker government so far, the market remains erratic. There are lessons to be learnt from the experience. Despite an improvement in the law and order and the supposed elimination of rings of extortionists operating in the supply link, no positive impact has been felt by way of declining prices. And then, of course, the well-knit and strong syndicates have yet to be neutralised effectively by encouraging a new breed of importers to come into play. To keep the prices of essentials in check, the usual methods prescribed by market economists are keeping the wholesale market vibrant, maintaining an unbroken supply chain of essential commodities. The people traditionally involved in the import, stocking, distribution and retailing of essentials need to be given a free play in their day-to-day trading activities. Small kitchen markets in the localities also prove to be effective in making items available to the residents at affordable prices. Above all, the import and distribution mechanisms need to be invigorated through taking the traders in confidence and offering them various incentives like soft-term bank loan, exemption of import duty on certain items and most importantly removing fear of persecution from their minds. The persecution mentality that had developed initially still seems to remain in various guises and this should be removed. Since we have little or no control over the external factors, such as international price index, shipment schedules and freight charges of foreign shipping lines, we should concentrate more vigorously on streamlining the internal factors that are within our powers to manage.
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