Prices of essentials should be brought under control

Prices of daily essentials continue to go up. It seems prices will no longer come down. People in fixed income groups have been suffering the brunt of spiralling price of essentials. The price of rice sees a constant hike for many days. In addition, the wholesale prices of pulse, salt, fish, meat and vegetables are gradually going out of reach of ordinary people.

The price of vegetables shot up significantly. The price of almost all types of vegetables except papaw is above Tk 60-70. A small bunch of spinach (Pui shak) now sells between Tk 30-40. Brinjal is selling at Tk 80-100 per kg, tomato at Tk 100-120 and green chilli at Tk 250-300.

After going to markets, common people are facing perplexity whether they will buy their essential commodities or not. Prices of all kinds of pulses have shot up. The price of grams remains stable. Price of local onions has shot up by around 11 percent compared to previous week. The price of imported onions has increased by 21.25 percent. The price of ginger has shot up while garlic's price somewhat decreased. As a result, low income people are suffering a lot. The situation may deteriorate more if the price of daily commodities is not reduced.

It is seen that traders increase the price of daily essentials showing various excuses when they get a chance. There is an allegation that the traders hiked the price by creating an artificial crisis through the hoarding of various commodities. It is also said that the price is going up as the production of crops have decreased due to floods and heavy rain. But different media reports say there is no food crisis in the market.

Prices go up when the commodities arrive at retail markets from wholesale sellers. In general, the wholesale sellers buy these commodities from farmers at lower price. It means the farmers are not getting the real benefit. A quarter is taking the advantage.

The government will have to take immediate steps to take over control in the markets. It will also have to take measures to prevent the prices from going up. A high level committee should be formed to control the markets. Steps should be taken to strengthen the market monitoring. The government will have to ensure punishment for those hoarding daily commodities illegally.

risingbd/Dhaka/Oct 17, 2017/Ali Nowsher/Amirul