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As the country prepares for the holy month of Ramazan, many wholesalers and shopkeepers are also getting ready by marking up food prices, including a few items that had been getting cheaper in recent weeks. While movement of prices in either direction is normal, and slight increases would be expected for items that see increased demand during Ramazan, traders’ greed and the government’s failure to either control prices or punish price gougers with any consistency means we can expect another Ramazan filled with financial stress for many citizens, especially those who were already struggling to put food on the table or otherwise pay the bills.
Unfortunately, while the government and elected officials from every party seem to agree about the problem, they all seem to do the bare minimum to address it, all but ensuring that the problem will come back soon after.
Official price lists and local market inspections lead to fines that are often low enough for some violators to happily pay them and keep overcharging. Meanwhile, more complex price fixing along the supply chains — from wholesale to retail — is easier to do and harder to detect, meaning that the biggest cogs in the price gouging machine are even less likely to be affected. Indeed, retailers often note, with evidence, that their price hikes are in line with increases in the prices they pay their suppliers, and some of the more considerate retail outlets have built reputations around community involvement through absorbing some of those price increases, including selling commodities at below the recommended sale price or marking down essentials.
But instead of relying on stopgaps, subsidies, charity and corporate social responsibility, stakeholders need to pursue sustainable solutions that work all year, such as creating a robust consumer protection system that includes checks at all stages of product lifecycles. Given the government’s economic digitisation drive, this would not be too hard to implement, as it would integrate into most tax and quality monitoring mechanisms.
