Streamlining bottled water market

As though the unrestrained hike in essential prices that the consumers have been experiencing day in day out were not enough, the bottled water and beverage market, too, have recently turned volatile. It started in June last year when the price of one litre of polyethylene terephthalate (PET)-bottle water increased by 25 per cent (from Tk 20 to Tk 25). The two-litre and five-litre water bottles, except half-litre, went through a similar price hike. But this abnormally high price of bottled water came to the notice of the Bangladesh Competition Commission (BCC) recently during a drive it conducted in August, 2023. This prompted the statutory state agency to write to the commerce secretary and the Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection (DNCRP). At the same time, it (BCC) urged the DNCRP to take immediate action against this unethical practice.

The BCC reportedly found that the maximum retail price (MRP) of half-litre (500 ml) bottled water produced by big companies had earlier been raised by more than 33 per cent (from Tk 15 to Tk 20), while that of one-litre bottle by another 20 per cent. As the bottled water of these sizes is most popular for obvious reasons, higher price hit the consumers hard. Worse yet, the gap between the wholesale rate (Tk 11-12) and that at the retail level (Tk 20) for the half-litre bottles have widened by over 81 per cent without good reason. Taking advantage of this situation, multinational brands of beverages have also witnessed a 100 per cent price hike. The local brands (of beverages), too, did not lag behind. This is unacceptable. To all appearances, it looks like a veritable price-hike festival that the public has been witnessing in awe!

In this connection, the argument earlier produced by the beverage and bottled water companies in favour of their products' higher price was that the import cost of PET resin (the raw material to make PET bottles) had gone up. Add to that the oft-repeated cause for price hike including the transport cost and, of course, the depreciation of taka. It is against this backdrop that the BCC recently held a meeting represented by the Bangladesh Trade and Tariff Commission (BTTC), DNCRP, National Board of Revenue (NBR) and the government's security agencies. As requested by the BCC, the different government and state agencies were expected to come up with their assessments of irrational hiking up the prices of bottled water and beverages by their producer companies concerned.

However, as the bottled water and beverage companies, which were also requested to represent themselves failed to appear at the said meeting, the BCC will be required to convene another meeting to ensure their participation. It is expected that the government agencies tasked with controlling unjustifiable and unethical surge in the prices of consumer goods should give a fair hearing to the businesses producing and marketing the commodities under scrutiny. But the greed-driven frenzy to earn extra profit, a phenomenon for which a new coinage, 'greedflation, has gained currency in the West, seems to have also gripped the local bottled-water and beverage companies. So, one wonders if they are in a mood to sympathise with the government's or the public's present predicament. In any case, the government's monitoring and enforcement wings, if they mean business, should be ready to go it alone and take necessary measures against the retailers, wholesalers and manufacturers of bottled water in the interest of the public.