Editorial
JS body finds prices stable
Really?
ONE must take the report of the JS committee on commerce, that it is satisfied that the prices of daily essentials were "stable" and that it did not "increase" after the announcement of the budget on 9 June, with more than a pinch of salt. What we find rather inexplicable is the incorrect reflection of actual prices of commodities, in some cases, in the report, which was prepared on the basis of a visit by the committee to a few of the kitchen markets of Dhaka.
The visit was conducted with a great deal of fanfare and accompanied by a bevy of staff and law enforcing personal, as one could make out from the footages appearing on the telly. And that is not quite the way to assess the prices of daily essentials. Reportedly, the committee was misled by the shopkeepers who fed them with false figures.
We wish we could concur with the committee. The reality on the ground speaks quite differently than what the committee would have us believe. And that was reflected in the comments of several members of the parliament, including those belonging to the ruling coalition, who had expressed concern over the rise in prices of essentials, in the parliament on Sunday. In reality prices have actually markedly increased since the announcement of the budget, and unfortunately that is quite in keeping with the pre-Ramadan trend of the past.
The committee should do more than merely express its hope that the prices would remain stable during the month of Ramadan. And certainly hanging price lists in all the markets in the capital is not the way to control prices of essentials, least of all during Ramadan. To start with, they should get the real market picture and ensure that vested quarters, whose prime concern is to make profit only, are prevented from interfering with the market mechanisms.
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