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Saturday Dec 14, 2024
Saturday, 28 August 2021 01:47 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
By Charumini de Silva
The Government yesterday assured there will be adequate supply of essential food items with price stability despite private sector warnings of imminent shortage and rising cost of living.
The Trade Ministry is engaged in extensive talks with the Finance Ministry to ensure supply of essential commodities and to stabilise prices in the local market.
The Government is considering making some key decisions regarding the essential commodities like rice, sugar, dhal, milk powder and wheat flour in the coming week.
“It requires immediate attention and intervention to ensure supply of essential food items and discussions were held with the Finance Ministry. By next week, we will announce some new decisions regarding the essential items,” Trade Minister Bandula Gunawardena told the Daily FT.
He said the Government had observed that the intermediary traders and importers are making massive profits capitalising on the COVID-19 situation in the country.
“They (traders and importers) are not doing fair trade but profiteering amidst the pandemic,” Gunawardena charged.
According to the importers, too much intervention, shortage of dollars, the rupee depreciation, and insufficient buffer stocks were the key reasons for the price hike that the consumers are experiencing in the market at present.
Despite the controlled pricing and limitations imposed, traders and importers continue to violate all the regulations, whilst passing on the additional costs on to the end consumer.
When asked if there was a shortage of essential food items in the country at present, the Gunawardena denied such claims, and added that the Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) has been tasked to raid warehouses and places to seize any piled stocks.
“The entire world is facing supply chain disruptions due to the pandemic. The usual production and supply doesn’t happen as smoothly as we expect it to be and this is a global phenomenon. Quite understanding the adverse impacts of the pandemic and the countrywide lockdown, there is a group of traders who are making this economic situation to their advantage and making undue profits,” the Trade Minister claimed.
However, shortage of essential food items is being forecast by the private sector due to multiple issues, including the foreign exchange crisis and the Government’s mismanagement. The matter was also taken up at the Cost-of-Living (CoL) Sub-Committee meeting held on Thursday chaired by the Trade Minister along with Consumer Protection State Minister Lasantha Alagiyawanna and other top-level officials.
In a related development, former Speaker Karu Jayasuriya, too, warned about a possible era of queues to purchase essential food items.
“The essential food supply system is about to collapse. From sugar to rice, prices are soaring as buffer stocks dwindle and bureaucratic red tape tightens. Another era of queues, if no quick course correction is made,” he tweeted yesterday.
National Movement for a Just Society Chairman Jayasuriya also claimed that the dire situation for essential commodities arose in the country as a result of inappropriate entitlement offered to a handful of people.
“All of it all started with giving undue privileges to a select few,” Jayasuriya tweeted.
National Movement for Consumer Rights Protection (NMCRP) President Ranjith Vithanage on Thursday, too, blamed the Government for not being able to enforce any sensible mechanism to ensure a reasonable prices whilst maintaining uninterrupted supply of essential goods and buffer stocks in the country.
Amidst these allegations, the Cabinet of Ministers has approved importation of rice, sugar and dhal. The Government justified that these importation steps were taken to secure sufficient stocks of essential goods whilst stabilising prices in the local market.
