To that end, a number of government initiatives have already been announced to counter this malpractice by comprehensively monitoring the market at various levels. The newest such initiative being a real-time app for monitoring the import, production, and marketing of essential commodities, courtesy of the commerce ministry.
Such initiatives are more than welcome, especially at this time of the year.
There have been a number of instances where local traders were caught red-handed stocking up on essential items such as cooking oil to create an artificial scarcity, and it is doubly shameful that they have resorted to such impropriety during the holy month of Ramadan.
While monitoring prices is absolutely of paramount importance, it is also worth bringing to book such unscrupulous traders and sending a message to any would-be offenders.
However, this behaviour is not exclusive at the trader-level, as there have been multiple incidences of public servants taking part in the heinous practice of stockpiling so that prices in the market go up, even within the subsidized market.
The DSCC recently announced its own set of initiatives to monitor prices, and we hope that, combined with the commerce ministry’s plans for an app-based solution, the practice of artificial price hikes of essentials can finally be ended.
While Bangladesh is absolutely on an upward trend when it comes to our economy and GDP, we must not forget that a sizeable portion of our population still live far too close to or below the poverty line, for whom even a Tk5 difference can often mean everything.
We cannot fail them, especially not during the holy month of Ramadan.