PEOPLE, especially the poor and the segments of the population with low, fixed and limited income, continue to suffer as prices of goods remain high. Prices of vegetables, onions, potatoes and edible oil remained high in the week ending on November 29. A slight decrease in prices of coarse varieties of rice, broilers and eggs in the week has, however, failed to make any noticeable difference for consumers. Traders, in their business-as-usual response, seek to say that prices of vegetables, onions and potatoes remained high because of supply inadequacy as the production of early harvest came to be harmed because of flooding and rain. They further seek to say that vegetables have started to be freshly available on the market, but the prices still remain high because of insufficient supply. The traders put the increase in prices of edible oil, especially packed soya bean oil, down to a supply shortage. But the supply of non-packed soya bean oil increased in the week. Papaya sold for Tk 40鈥�50 a kilogram, in the lowest, whilst tomato sold for Tk 150鈥�160 a kilogram, in the highest. Green chilli sold for Tk 100鈥�140 a kilogram and the local variety of onions for Tk 130鈥�140 a kilogram.
Whilst all the measures that the government says it has taken to arrest the price spiral appear to have largely fallen flat, the price situation hardly afford people of low, fixed and limited income any relief. The implications of high prices of goods could be further troubling. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification that international agencies, including the United Nations, published in early November says that about 23.3 million people of Bangladesh, who account for more than a fourth of the population, experience high levels of food insecurity. A mix of internal and external factors is often blamed for the prices. The factors include flooding, which is a natural phenomenon, disruption in the supply chain, which could be better handled in most cases with a bit of planning, and market syndication, which is seen to have always been present. The government, which was installed on August 8, has also lowered import duty on several food items in the past three months or so to improve supplies to fight against market volatility, but nothing seems to be working. Lowering import duty on food items is not reported to have effectively worked in the past and some experts believe that this, too, would not work now because it is ultimately the traders who benefit from such measures the most, hardly the government and rarely the consumers.
The government should, therefore, do all that it can to bring down prices on the market. It should take up a comprehensive approach which should include a sustained, effective market oversight and an effort to ensure uninterrupted supply to the market. But, first of all, it should break the market cartels at any cost.
