KARACHI: Price control drive fails to scare profiteers
KARACHI, Oct 8: The much talked about campaign by the city government through its officials with magisterial powers seems to have failed to scare the profiteers who have continued to fleece people in almost all parts of the city.
Before the commencement of the holy month, tall claim were made by the administration that the menace of profiteering and hoarding would be effectively checked during Ramazan with the help of price magistrates. However, even after passage of about two weeks of this holy month, prices of almost all commodities, especially kitchen items, are still exorbitantly high.
The price control magistrates have been conducting raids every day to check profiteering in various markets of the city, and have also been imposing fines and awarding prison terms to anyone found indulge in overcharging, but penalising a few hundred shopkeepers and vendors in a city of 14 million souls could not scare profiteers.
Failure of the price control campaign could be gauged from the fact that the price list issued by the city government and supposed to be displayed at every sales outlet could not be found at most of such outlets except for a few stalls at the weekly bachat bazaars and other markets being run under the city government’s control.
Almost each street of Karachi has shops, stalls or some other sales outlet but displaying of a price list is a rarity.
Many shopkeepers and vendors in the city believe that such drives can change nothing but only increase the Bhatta rate.
Some of them, on condition of not to be named, said those who would pay Bhatta regularly, they would never face any problem and would not have to worry. “Corruption is running in the blood and flesh of our bureaucracy, which does not afford honesty and rule of law to prevail in the society.”
The so-called control on prices could be witnessed at any milk shop where milk is selling at Rs30-32 per litre since the milk-sellers have unilaterally raised the rate from Rs28 per litre in March. Despite raids and fines, the fixed rate is hardly charged anywhere in the 18 towns.
Same is the case of sugar which is openly selling at Rs35 per kg and above. All assurances, warning, claims, pledges and promises have proved hollow as the mafia of sugar mill owners, which has locked horns with the government on issues of sugar availability in open market at a reasonable rate, is refusing to start the crushing season on time and stabilising buying price of sugarcane.
Though the provincial government has been issuing firm statements in this regard, it has yet to take any concrete step to make the mafia come to its terms.
Last year, too, the government had announced stern action to be taken against the defiant sugar millers, but the whole year passed off without any action having been taken against anyone while the kingpins continued with their practice of making billions through an artificial shortage of sugar.
The hapless citizens were promised a ‘visible relief’ through the sale of sugar at Rs27.5 per kg at utility stores, but it did not make any big difference. Despite promises and pledges, the number of utility stores was not considerably raised and like the price control magistrates, the utility stores also could not help the poor consumers in a big way.
The Eid shopping is picking up now and traders are set to fleece people in their traditional style to make millions in the season.
A source at the Jamia Cloth Market said that local cloth merchants were charging some 200 to 300 per cent higher than the normal rates of ladies and gents varieties. There is no effective mechanism to control this artificial price hike.
Profiteers and hoarders are thriving due to three factors: Bhatta and bribe culture, absence of a powerful and vocal consumers’ rights body, and dearth of a fair price shop chain, like utility stores.
Unless these root-causes are addressed, the cosmetic steps like the price control campaign could not succeed in containing the menace of profiteering and hoarding.—PPI
