Heartless traders and headless chicken

Friday 3rd September, 2021

The prices of all essential commodities have skyrocketed. The government is running around like a headless chicken, having done precious little to control them. It has been left with no alternative but to order raids to seize and confiscate hoarded sugar, rice, etc., and even declare a state of emergency to bring the situation under control. Curiously, the SLPP propagandists claim that there are no shortages. If so, will they explain why the government has resorted to raids and emergency regulations? The need for taking the proverbial sledgehammer out of the toolshed would not have arisen if the government had given the Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) a free hand to deal with hoarders and other such unscrupulous elements responsible for creating shortages of food items during a national health crisis.

Traders playing low-down tricks on consumers have emerged so strong as to hold the public to ransom because the government subjugated the consumer protection laws to the interests of its cronies in the business community. One sees no difference between the heartless businesses bent on exploiting the pandemic-hit people and the drug addicts who robbed valuables from the tsunami victims who were breathing their last, in 2004. They are evil personified and must be reined in. Unfortunately, they are the ones who bankroll politicians’ election campaigns and thereby remain above the law.

Sugar, imported at Rs. 97 a kilo, is being sold at Rs. 220, the Opposition alleges. The government waived duty on sugar to help one of its cronies in return for services rendered before the 2019 regime change, and most of his sugar stocks have not been released to the market, we are told. An unusually large amount of sugar was also imported by others when sugar prices dropped in some countries such as India. It is believed that Sri Lanka’s sugar stocks are sufficient for more than two months, and traders could easily halve the price of sugar and still earn a profit. The onus is on the government to prevent consumers being fleeced.

A few months ago, when consumer rights protection groups called for raids on the warehouses of big-time rice millers hoarding rice, Trade Minister Bandula Gunawardena said a government could not act like a thug. But, today, he has had to eat his words. If only such action had been taken at least one year ago to prevent shortages of essential commodities.

Much publicity has been given to a CAA raid on a private warehouse owned by a small-time businessman. The government would have the public believe that such businessmen are hoarding paddy and creating rice shortages. But the biggest culprits are in the North Central Province, and nobody dares enter their warehouse complexes. In May 2020, the government made the CAA officials regret having inspected some paddy warehouses in Polonnnaruwa, including those belonging to former President Maithripala Sirisena’s brother, Dudley. The pro-SLPP millers defied the CAA directives, refused to sell rice at the stipulated prices, met the government leaders subsequently and had the maximum retail prices increased. They always have the last laugh. The CCA was left with egg on its face. If the paddy and rice stocks hoarded in the warehouses owned by the government politicians and their cronies are seized, and distributed properly, the rice could be made freely available at much lower prices.

Let the government be urged to summon the political moxie to send a CAA team to inspect the paddy/rice warehouses, especially those owned by Dudley Sirisena and State Minister Siripala Gamlath, in Polonnaruwa. That will be half the battle in helping the hapless public keep the wolf from the door in these troubled times. One only hopes the ongoing raids will continue, and the CAA will not baulk at taking on the pro-government businesses in safeguarding consumers’ interests and rights.