Blaming ball-game no soother to the consumers
Wednesday, 30 December 2009
Shamsul Huq Zahid
The prices of most essentials, including rice, flour (atta), edible oil and pulses, have gone up for the last few weeks.
The prices of lentil have reached all time high and that of rice have increased by Tk. 4.0 to Tk. 5.0 a kg at the retail level when the harvesting of Aman rice is on.
Commerce Minister Faruk Khan, however, saw no 'instability' in the market and held the electronic media responsible for the current hike in lentil prices.
The minister, while talking to newsmen in Dhaka early this week, maintained that TV reports on price situation generally created a negative impact on commodity prices. He alleged that the government had faced in the recent past an embarrassing situation because of TV report-induced hike in sugar prices.
Finding a scapegoat in the media is nothing new. A section of government leaders (not specific to any particular regime), rightly or wrongly, blame the media for many ills, social, political and economic.
But the act of blaming the media, print or electronic, for encouraging the traders for hiking the prices of essential commodities appears to be unfair. For a newspaper or a TV channel goes for straight reporting if the prices of essential commodities go up. To make their reports down-to-earth, the media talks to the traders to know the reasons behind the hike in prices. They also enrich their reports with reactions from the consumers and also individuals heading the agencies concerned.
Actually, the hike in the prices of any commodity could be either for genuine or fake reasons. The main actors here are importers, wholesalers and retailers. They decide what would be the prices of commodities, not the media.
For instance, when the prices of sugar shot up recently, the commerce minister held a series of meetings with the sugar importers and local raw sugar refiners to help bring down the prices. Finally, it was agreed at a meeting held between the commerce ministry and sugar traders and importers to sell sugar at Tk 49 a kg at the retail level. But the sugar prices have never come down below Tk. 52 a kg at the retail level. Yet the agency concerned has never bothered to explain to the consumers the reasons for not selling sugar by the traders at the agreed price.
The commerce minister, while admitting his ministry's failure to monitor the market at the retail level, also said this weakness might have pushed the prices of essentials up.
But monitoring or absence of it, cannot alone explain the price situation. Price monitoring committees formed by the government and the apex chamber of the country during the last holy month of Ramadan had no effect on the price situation. Even, at least, on one occasion, the members of a price monitoring committee had to confront a group of angry consumers at a city market.
Instead of blaming the media solely, the government should, first of all, try to ascertain the facts and explain them. If for genuine reasons, such as short supply and rise in international prices, a commodity becomes costlier in the local market, the government should explain the same to the consumers along with necessary facts and figures. True, the government would run the risk of losing popularity (generally, consumers abhor explanations, no matter how genuine they are, supporting any hike in the prices of commodities they buy) in the event of such explanation. But the fact remains the rising prices of essentials impair the credibility of a government denting into its popularity, no matter whether it hides or explains the reasons behind the price-rise.
The government, at the same time, should also take to task the unscrupulous traders, if there is any, trying to inflate prices of essentials at the cost of consumers. A few actions against rogue traders might encourage the consumers to accept some of the official explanations as credible.
It is also important for the government leaders to take a realistic approach and call a spade a spade. For example, the consumers won't accept a statement that would define the current essential prices as 'stable'. Nor they would accept a claim that good quality lentil is available in the market at Tk. 100- Tk. 120 a kg. Such claims would only make consumers angry.
One would rather find the statement of the Food and Disaster Management Minister Dr. Abdur Razzak practical. Speaking at a seminar on the same day, he admitted that the prices of rice had gone up in recent days. But he expressed the optimism that the prices of the main staple would not go up further. The food minister also explained the actions the government would be taking to contain food prices in the event of volatility in food grain prices in the international market. However, nobody knows how the situation would unfold in the coming months. Yet the approach does appear to be rational.
The prices of most essentials, including rice, flour (atta), edible oil and pulses, have gone up for the last few weeks.
The prices of lentil have reached all time high and that of rice have increased by Tk. 4.0 to Tk. 5.0 a kg at the retail level when the harvesting of Aman rice is on.
Commerce Minister Faruk Khan, however, saw no 'instability' in the market and held the electronic media responsible for the current hike in lentil prices.
The minister, while talking to newsmen in Dhaka early this week, maintained that TV reports on price situation generally created a negative impact on commodity prices. He alleged that the government had faced in the recent past an embarrassing situation because of TV report-induced hike in sugar prices.
Finding a scapegoat in the media is nothing new. A section of government leaders (not specific to any particular regime), rightly or wrongly, blame the media for many ills, social, political and economic.
But the act of blaming the media, print or electronic, for encouraging the traders for hiking the prices of essential commodities appears to be unfair. For a newspaper or a TV channel goes for straight reporting if the prices of essential commodities go up. To make their reports down-to-earth, the media talks to the traders to know the reasons behind the hike in prices. They also enrich their reports with reactions from the consumers and also individuals heading the agencies concerned.
Actually, the hike in the prices of any commodity could be either for genuine or fake reasons. The main actors here are importers, wholesalers and retailers. They decide what would be the prices of commodities, not the media.
For instance, when the prices of sugar shot up recently, the commerce minister held a series of meetings with the sugar importers and local raw sugar refiners to help bring down the prices. Finally, it was agreed at a meeting held between the commerce ministry and sugar traders and importers to sell sugar at Tk 49 a kg at the retail level. But the sugar prices have never come down below Tk. 52 a kg at the retail level. Yet the agency concerned has never bothered to explain to the consumers the reasons for not selling sugar by the traders at the agreed price.
The commerce minister, while admitting his ministry's failure to monitor the market at the retail level, also said this weakness might have pushed the prices of essentials up.
But monitoring or absence of it, cannot alone explain the price situation. Price monitoring committees formed by the government and the apex chamber of the country during the last holy month of Ramadan had no effect on the price situation. Even, at least, on one occasion, the members of a price monitoring committee had to confront a group of angry consumers at a city market.
Instead of blaming the media solely, the government should, first of all, try to ascertain the facts and explain them. If for genuine reasons, such as short supply and rise in international prices, a commodity becomes costlier in the local market, the government should explain the same to the consumers along with necessary facts and figures. True, the government would run the risk of losing popularity (generally, consumers abhor explanations, no matter how genuine they are, supporting any hike in the prices of commodities they buy) in the event of such explanation. But the fact remains the rising prices of essentials impair the credibility of a government denting into its popularity, no matter whether it hides or explains the reasons behind the price-rise.
The government, at the same time, should also take to task the unscrupulous traders, if there is any, trying to inflate prices of essentials at the cost of consumers. A few actions against rogue traders might encourage the consumers to accept some of the official explanations as credible.
It is also important for the government leaders to take a realistic approach and call a spade a spade. For example, the consumers won't accept a statement that would define the current essential prices as 'stable'. Nor they would accept a claim that good quality lentil is available in the market at Tk. 100- Tk. 120 a kg. Such claims would only make consumers angry.
One would rather find the statement of the Food and Disaster Management Minister Dr. Abdur Razzak practical. Speaking at a seminar on the same day, he admitted that the prices of rice had gone up in recent days. But he expressed the optimism that the prices of the main staple would not go up further. The food minister also explained the actions the government would be taking to contain food prices in the event of volatility in food grain prices in the international market. However, nobody knows how the situation would unfold in the coming months. Yet the approach does appear to be rational.