Home ›› 30 Jan 2023 ›› Opinion
Every year during the month of Ramzan it is a common practice of traders and businessmen to hike the prices of essentials. If it is one of the most-consumed items like chickpea or dried pea or date, then one can be sure of the rise in its price. Shut your eyes at night for a good-night sleep and when you open them in the next morning and visit the kitchen market you come back home with a pale and disturbed look. The commodity prices are up again!
Hiking prices of essentials in the month of Ramzan needs no explanation in our country. Everyone knows the operation of syndicates behind all those misdoings in the holy month of Ramzan. They simply don’t feel a prick of conscience when they use religion to cut people’s pockets. If you ask them about the reasons for price hikes they always come up with their own explanation and logic that we commoners never understand.
The most surprising thing is even the government can do nothing in this case as if there is nobody to look after the plight of people. The people sitting at the top positions of the state with people’s vote roar like tigers before this holy month and issue threat that they will do whatever means are there at their disposal to keep the prices of Ramzan items stable. And what is supposed to happen happens. The prices go up without any apparent reasons every year as if the religious month comes for the syndicates to religiously make benefit out of it. It seems it is their divine right to do so.
But this time two months before the Ramzan came the prices of most-consumed items of this month have already begun to show an upward trend. Various newspapers have already started publishing reports on the upward trend of prices of Ramzan essentials. At the country’s largest commodity hub Khatunganj wholesale market the price of chickpea has already gone up by Tk450 a maund, dried pea by Tk200-Tk220 and dates by Tk10-Tk100 depending upon the varieties.
This year the markets of Ramzan essentials seem to be much worse than the previous years. The holy month is expected to begin in the middle of March but the overall economic situation of the country doesn’t seem to change for the better by the time. The signs and symptoms show it will remain as volatile as now. Although for a couple of months before the immediate past year came to an end the high-ups of the government came up with the overarching message that everything would be alright in the month of January. But January is almost over and we are yet to see any hope in sight.
Even though the prices of most products in the international market have been stable for the couple of months our domestic market is still showing no positive signs because ours is a country that mostly depend on imported food items. As the imports of different products have dropped the international market stability is not coming in any use here because of the rise in the US dollar rate and complexity in opening Letters of Credits (LCs). These twin problems have led to the drop in importing goods.
As the government has imposed restriction on imports to cope with the dollar rate it has pushed the prices of essentials further. Again the problems have been compounded further by the rises in fuel and energy prices. The government move has so far failed to give a solution to the existing economic problem. The forex currency reserve continues to drop. Apart from the government restriction on imports, banks are in most cases unable to open Letter of Credit (LCs) without which the importers can’t bring in some very essential items.
Basically six essential commodities – edible oil, sugar, lentil, onion, chickpeas and dates are to be imported in large quantities during the month of Ramzan. But if the importers can’t open LCs they can’t import those Ramzan essentials much to the discomfort of the Muslim community people who are in the habit of eating ifter items with those commodities.
Major newspapers have been running stories for a month or so pointing out that low supply of those commodities pushing up their prices. Traders and businessmen were worried about what was going to happen if they failed to open LCs at least two months before the holy month of Ramzan began. Now the holy month of Ramzan is just two months away and still there is no solution in sight.
A few days back traders and businessmen sat at a meeting with the Commerce Ministry on 04 January. Leaders of various trade bodies and the government officials from Bangladesh Bank, National Board of Revenue, the public Security Division, the Commerce Ministry, the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh and the Consumers Association of Bangladesh were present at the meeting.
After the meeting held on 04 December the Commerce Ministry on 05 December requested Bangladesh Bank to keep aside a certain quota of the US dollar for importers to facilitate their imports of six essential Ramzan commodities so that no supply chain disruption happen during the holy month. If dollar crisis is not solved, only instruction can do nothing to elevate the situation.
Now the key challenge of the government to contain the price hikes of essential Ramzan commodities is to solve the waning dollar crisis. Economist and business experts have already put forward some suggestions for the
government to follow including withdrawal of interest rate cap. As per the International Monetary Fund (IMF) suggestion, the government decided to put in place the floating exchange rate. If the interest rate cap continues and floating exchange rate is not executed the economic situation will remain the same as it has been since the dollar crisis began. I think it will be almost impossible for the government to facilitate imports of essentials Ramzan goods.
It is now almost sure that the country is going to see a quantum leap in the prices of daily essentials in the holy month of Ramzan aggravating the lives of people especially devout Muslims.
The writer is a journalist. He can be contacted at maksud.i.rahaman@gmail.com
