Edible oil price hike

Prices of every essential item keep going up. Sometimes they are hiked based on sound reasons sometimes reasons are concocted. Sometimes the government does it while at other times traders and businessmen do it at their will. But it is common people who eventually have to bear the brunt of price hikes.

The economy is going through a painful adjustment at the moment and all markets are in disequilibrium as demand and supply adjust to inflationary pressures

This time the government has decided to hike the price of edible oil, an essential daily product consumed by each and every household. A meeting organized by the Commerce Ministry at the office of Bangladesh Trade and Tariff Commission took the decision. As the report run by The Business Post states, a kg of soybean oil saw an increase of Tk 12. The decision came into effect yesterday.

What is noticeable from the meeting is the price is finally set following the proposal of the traders and businesspeople while it should have been otherwise. The state should play an arbitrary role in any decision like this. Otherwise, a section of traders always put the government in a trap mounting the misery of general people, especially the marginalised people. Global market conditions may be uncontrollable, but oversight of local markets is still very much in the state’s domain.

But most often we see the government buckling under the pressure of vested quarters. Whatever the reasons for the rise in the price of edible oil it is going to put an enormous burden on people with limited income.

As for sugar, the issue of raising the price of this essential product was discussed. It is quite obvious that the price of sugar will go up but it wasn’t decided how much increase it will see. The sugar price has already gone up by Tk 20 a kg soon after the Eid festival. In some markets, sugar is selling at Tk140 a kg. Sugar refiners reasoned that the price of non-refined sugar in the international market had gone up pushing the import price of a kg of sugar up to Tk131. And they can’t now afford to sell it less than the import price.

Similarly, edible oil refiners have their logic too. They said as the VAT would be collected at the previous rate they also couldn’t afford to sell the product at the earlier price. Apparently, it is only the people who can afford to buy products at whatever price is fixed either by the refiners association or by the ministry or the agency concerned. The government should look into the matter seriously before finalising any decision regarding hiking the price of any essential commodity.

We believe that the increase in the prices of both edible oil and sugar is disproportionate. If the price in the international market goes up by 2 per cent, in our country it often sees a rise of much more than that. Again when the price in the international market goes down it is rarely lowered in our country. The way the prices keep soaring people are losing their purchasing power. If their purchasing power is gone who are the traders going to sell their products to?

We can’t think of a society where people will have no bare minimum ability to buy for their survival.

It is high time the government does something in reining the uncontrolled price hike of essential items and unregulated market players.