Prices hike yet again
For the second time this month, prices of essential food items have shot up—the first hike came just before the Shab-e-Barat, and now again ahead of the month of Ramadan. And though we were given assurances by the commerce minister just last month that there would be no change in the prices of essentials this year, it seems that the phenomenon has taken firm root.
We fail to understand the logic behind this sudden price hikes each and every year—there has been no major natural disaster or any volatility to affect supply. As our report just yesterday showed, no stakeholder can come up with an explanation for the sudden hike in prices. yet, prices of essentials such as onion, sugar, green chilli, eggplant, potato, garlic, ginger, tomato, cucumber and puffed rice has risen by Tk 5 to 40. Even prices of red meat and fish have increased by Tk 20 to 50 per kg, as has the price of chicken. Still managers of wholesale stores maintain there is no food crisis.
Of course, this is not new to us. The sudden price hikes every year are never justified and some artificial crisis is created by unscrupulous businessmen. This not only comes at a expense for the regular consumers, but have spill over effects for other goods, threatening to make the entire market volatile. This is not acceptable. And despite promises, the government has so far failed to take steps to stop these hikes. This unholy trend during the holy month cannot become the norm and we urge that the government step up its efforts of monitoring the market, and take necessary action. Since everyone from traders, suppliers and wholesalers keep assuring that the supply is plenty, there should be an investigation to find out at which stage of the supply chain prices are being manipulated. We hope, that at least this year, we will see the promises of regulating prices of essentials during Ramadan translated into action.
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