THE monitoring of prices of essential commodities by the law enforcing agencies has raised hope among the consumers about the inflationary pressure not mounting up further. It has been reported that the monitoring cells have been set up in the capital city of Dhaka and neighbouring Tongi district in compliance with a decision taken earlier at a meeting at the Bangladesh Rifles Headquarters that was attended by BDR personnel, members of joint forces and Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), wholesalers and retailers. Prices are being kept under close watch by such cells and arrangements have been made to put on display a wholesale price list. The retailers have been asked to sell their goods, keeping consistency with this list.
The consumers will like to see some sobering effects of the operations of the monitoring cells on the prices of essential commodities. Under the arrangements made by such cells, the wholesalers have reportedly been asked to report on their daily sales to the concerned cells and the joint forces will arrest any wholesaler and retailer on charge of selling essentials at high prices ignoring the price lists.
We are not certain about how long such operations by the cells will continue and how such measures will match the goals of a market-oriented economy that essentially functions on the basis of interplay of forces on both demand and supply sides. But we will certainly welcome any positive impact of the functioning of the monitoring cells on the prices.
Having noted this, we would like to state here that too much intervention in the market might have some disruptive effects. The days of a command economy are gone everywhere and the prices can not be controlled by any diktat and draconian measures here are most unlikely to have much of any positive effect on a sustained basis. There lies our fear about the adverse effects of micro-economic management by the government.
If businesses withdraw themselves from the pursuit of their activities because of too much interference and control flouting the goals and objectives of a competitive market-oriented economy, the constraints on the supply-side may trigger fresh problems in the market sooner or later.
We will urge the authorities concerned to keep this into consideration.
Abul Hashem
Zikatola,
Dhaka.
Effectiveness of monitoring cells
FE Team | Published: September 25, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00
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