Prices will rise
As Ramzan looms closer, so does, Allah be praised, hoarding and profiteering. There isn’t a way around it. Public policy, social engineering, appeals to the faithful, nothing seems to do the trick. This particular Ramzan would have been any government’s nightmare. The peculiarities of the lunar calendar have landed the month back in the thick of summer. Couple this with our incessant power crisis and the global food crisis and the Faithful can be expected to be a petulant flock.
The one good thing about the Ramzan problems, though, is that they have been repeated enough times for the government to recognise certain patterns. No floods, earthquakes or riots, these. By now, the government should have its act in order. It doesn’t. And it won’t do the Punjab government (the only government not being run by the federal ruling party) to hide behind the inefficiencies of the federal government here. These are provincial, even district level issues, the resolution of which is as much an exercise in food department management as it is in policing and civil administration.
Islamabad approved a Rs 2 billion subsidy for Ramzan the other day. The subsidy is meant, primarily, to shield consumers from price shocks in food items. Flour, ghee, gram, lentils, rice, dates: your basic Ramzan staples. The Utility Stores are to cut their margins on these and cut their profits on more than 800 items. The provision of alternative sale points isn’t a bad step.
The problem with swooping in on markets structures, however, is that the whole thing could be thrown out of whack, leading to price shocks greater than would have normally been, as was evident from the crackdown against the sugar hoarders a couple of years ago. The state can’t clamp down on these through brute force alone; the matter’s slightly more delicate. It is hoped that the various governments have a well-thought out plan in action.
