18 October 2004	Monday	03 Ramazan 1425

Consumer empowerment remains an alien concept for the decision makers in Pakistan even after 57 years of independence. Sellers dominate Pakistan's market. They get bank loans on low rates. It helps them to hoard and hold, create scarcities and make huge profits. The State Bank of Pakistan intervenes only when the prices have gone up sky high and hoarders have made good profit.

No one has realised that all citizens are eventually consumers. One may be a producer of one or few goods but goes to market as a consumer for all other goods and services that come from other sources. Consumer mobilisation is therefore mobilisation of all the citizens. Mobilisation needs awareness and awareness demand flow of information which unfortunately is not to be found in Pakistan.

An aware and informed citizen is mature enough to deal with situations of scarcity and abundance of any good howsoever essential and sensitive it is. Demand and supply are round the year business and hence the prices of the essential goods have to be tackled round the year. What do we do in Pakistan.

Comes Ramzan and the government seems to wake up from deep slumber. Task forces and committees are formed, meetings are held and finally special Ramzan relief package and a price list is issued. Stern warnings are given to the shopkeepers. The shopkeepers do hang the new price lists in their shops, but never comply with them. When Ramzan is over, it is again back to square one. The government has more important issues to attend rather than getting itself engaged whole time in prices and supply of the essential goods.

For consumers, Ramzan this year is no different than what they saw in the previous years. The federal cabinet discussed in detail the issue of supply and prices of essential goods. The Economic Coordination Committee of the cabinet provided the guidelines. The provinces also geared themselves up for taking all steps and finally the district governments in mega cities like Karachi took time out from their politicking and worked out price list of the essential committees.

The present government which is committed to market economy principles and never miss an opportunity to target governments of the politicians for squandering public money on public sector institutions has also opted to bring back to life the almost dead Utility Stores Corporation during Ramzan.

The Corporation has been asked to offer 450 goods on 5 to 10 per cent less prices than the market. The government has not given the subsidy amount involved in this operation. As a matter of observation and experience, the subsidy in such operations never benefit the consumers. It is shared by the officials and big sharks of the market. How different it is going to be this Ramzan is anybody's guess.

How ridiculously can government behave is best illustrated in their judgements to fix prices. In Karachi, the district city government now wants the butchers to sell mutton at Rs 170 a kilogram during Ramzan. For almost last two years the butchers have been selling mutton at Rs 200 to Rs 230 a kilogram. The administration never intervened to ensure Rs 170 a kilogram price on mutton during all these two years. It now wants the butchers to sell mutton only during Ramzan at Rs 170 a kilogram. Reports suggest that butchers have refused to obey the city government.

The grocers too have refused to accept the price list given to them. No one supports butchers or grocers who want higher prices. The government should seek help of market analysts who should sit with the representatives of trade and work out costing of all goods including that of production and transportation. Also to be included in this exercise should be the impact of government taxes and financial cost of banks.

Then let the consumers be informed of this costing and supply position. The government should ensure that trade of one or any particular item does not come under hold of few traders. It should deal with the monopolies and cartels.

What is required is the application of economic principles on the supply and prices of the goods. Instead of supervising the price fixation and price administration, the governments, in all those countries where market economy is the rule of the game, monitors the production and supply position of goods.

The government ensures infra-structure facilities so that goods can be transported quickly to the places where they are found short in supply. The prices are determind by demand and supply rule. If recent rains in October have damaged tomatoe crop in Badin and Thatta there is bound to be shortage in supply of these goods.

In good old days, there used to be a federal agricultural marketing department. The department kept update information on cropping of all vegetables and fruits in all parts of the country. During the decade of sixties and seventies, the department used to provide province wise and district wise information on size of crops of all these vegetables and on the timing of their picking. Prices of these goods were fixed by the governments then also but with economic justification.

An unending flow of information on costing and supply of goods is a pre-requisite for consumer mobilisation. Unless the consumers are well informed of the facts they can never be able to judge whether the price and quality of the good they demand is up to their satisfaction.

How far the Sindh Government Ordinance on Consumer Protection will serve the purpose. This ordinance was enforced by the provincial Governor on August 12 and will lapse on expiry of 90 days period on November 11. So far, the Sin dh Assembly has not bothered to take up this bill and convert it into a piece of law. In Sindh, the governor represents one centre of power. The Chief Minister is the other centre of power who can persuade law minister to take this ordinance in the assembly. The Nazim of Karachi represents another power centre because Karachi constitutes almost 40 per cent of the provincial population. Then there is a role of Corps Commander in the provincial administration. In final analysis the Consumer Protection Ordinance has become a hostage to multiple centres of power. The consumers will continue to suffer.

The Helpline Trust is reported to be one of the NGOs that has taken up the issue of forming a Consumers Rights Council in the province on lines of Citizen Police Liasion Committee (CPLC). The Sindh government ordinance also proposes formation of a Consumers Rights Council on these lines which will operate from the Governor House. The Helpline Trust also formed a Consumers Protection Council which brought out brochures and pamphlets to create awareness on certain products. But its impact remained limited because of the obvious reasons.

Power flows from the plush rooms where the government committees hold meeting. All economic laws of demand and supply and the role of consumers are to be treated with contempt. The growers and the consumers are "subjects'' not worth of being given any role in framing up of economic policies. The government alone fixes the price and administers it. The government functionaries get good chance to harass the shopkeepers and get their share of money. The consumers continue to pay higher prices and may not get the quality goods even then.

Inflation and price spiral were the issues of the manifestoes of certain political parties during electioneering but consumer protection never found a place in the agenda of any political party. One can recall with certain amusement late Maulana Noorani's utterances during 1977 PNA's agitation against the PPP government promising to bring back 1970 prices.

It was neither taken seriously when it was uttered from the political stage nor it was reminded when the PPP government was thrown out and PNA became a part of late Ziaul Haq's set up. Political parties do cosmetic work. They set up a few fair price stall here and there during Ramzan to show their concern for the consumers. But beyond this, none of the political parties has done serious work to address the consumers of the country.

A bureau of supply and prices was set up in Sindh during 1981 which organised for the first time Juma bazaars in Karachi and other cities. The concept of Juma bazaar was to eliminate the middle men and bring all agricultural goods and branded industrial products directly to the bazaar. The Bbreau also carried out costing excercise of various products before fixing the sale price. But then, the Juma bazaars got corrupted and stalls were allotted to those who carried influence and clout.

Prices of essential goods became a matter of concern for Benazir and Nawaz Sharif governments. The cabinets and economic coordination committees used to make review of the price indices of the Federal Bureau of Statistics. Former President of Pakistan Ghulam Ishaq Khan questioned the credibility of Bureau's price indices in his one of the annual addresses to the joint parliament session when Nawaz Sharif was prime minister.