{"id":73263,"date":"2017-12-30T04:02:21","date_gmt":"2017-12-30T11:02:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=73263"},"modified":"2017-12-30T04:02:21","modified_gmt":"2017-12-30T11:02:21","slug":"fair-prices-for-essentials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2017\/12\/30\/fair-prices-for-essentials\/","title":{"rendered":"Fair prices for\u00a0essentials?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Upali Cooray\u00a0Former General\u00a0Manager\u00a0of SATHOSA<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

Prime\u00a0Minister\u00a0Ranil Wickramasinghe has said\u00a0government\u00a0has taken measures to introduce fair price shops in collaboration with private sector and Sathosa to ensure fair prices for essential commodities in the open market. This statement of the prime minister is something like dousing fires without preventing fires. Considering the fact that the oncoming\u00a0crucialelections scheduled for February 2018\u00a0he has to say something to the masses who are burdened with high commodity prices. Sathosa has seen six\u00a0Chairmendeparting quickly unable to withstand interference by the trade minister who has held this\u00a0post for eight\u00a0consequent\u00a0years.<\/p>\n

I cannot recall any period of time when the cost of living issues, specifically the exercise of thwarting the escalation of prices of essential commodities has been handled so badly due to lack of timely, sensible decision making resulting in a frenzied mess up.<\/p>\n

As very strongly pointed out by the media the entire effort\u00a0depicts, corruption,\u00a0amateurism,\u00a0confusion andfrenzy.\u00a0The unrealistic prices in many essential food stuffs\u00a0during the festive season is not a phenomenon which occurred due to unavoidable circumstances\u201d or unforeseen\u201d reasons. It is a situation which has\u00a0occurred\u00a0due to downright manipulation, lack of vision and ignorance.<\/p>\n

The government machinery is equipped with more than adequate\u00a0resources\u00a0to forecast market trends fairly accurately and this crisis situation could have been avoided if timely action was taken. Preventing\u00a0fires\u201d is a safer option than dousing fires\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Cost of Living and Food Security Coordinating\u00a0Committee (COLFSCC) now headed by the Prime\u00a0Minister\u00a0himself has\u00a0as its members all relevant heads of Ministries,\u00a0departments\u00a0and other government institutions to advise and guide the\u00a0decision making by the Cabinet. The\u00a0cost of living is a phenomenon which cannot be held down,\u00a0but market distortions resulting in sudden unrealistic prices can conveniently be avoided by constantly monitoring and adjusting the upward trends by timely action.<\/p>\n

The COLFSCC was first headed by that eminent bureaucrat G.V.P Samarasinghe during the\u00a0post 1977J.R.J government. The committee met like a prayer every Friday for a\u00a0review of market situation and forecasts.<\/p>\n

To name some of the\u00a0eminent Secretaries who chaired the COLFSCC and\u00a0entrusted with the responsibility of food\u00a0procurement\u00a0and distribution were men like M.D.D Peiris,\u00a0Lakshman De\u00a0Mel,\u00a0late Gaya\u00a0Kumaratunga,\u00a0late\u00a0R.A.P Goonatillake,\u00a0and T.P.G.NLeelaratne.<\/p>\n

These senior officers were very experienced in internal and external trade and the so called private sector Mafia could not hood\u00a0–\u00a0wink them. They knew how to\u00a0avoid unnecessary\u00a0crises\u00a0in the market and advised the ministers well in advance to take timely action. The COLFSCC is the most crucial arm the government can make use to forecasting and planning strategies to\u00a0prevent\u00a0market distortions.<\/p>\n

According to recent media reports\u00a0the Ministry of trade and Commerce attempt to\u00a0import\u00a0Coconut kernel from Kerala and Malaysia was thwarted by\u00a0the far thinking Minister Harsha De Silva. Trade minister Rishad Badiuddin\u00a0appears to have\u00a0personal\u00a0interests before national interests. He has been the Trade minister for last eight years continuously just because he can bring some minority votes to the\u00a0government. MinisterHarsha De Silva pointed out importing\u00a0Coconut\u00a0kernel could lead to\u00a0coconut\u00a0diseases hitherto unknown beingbrought in to the country. Coconut should never be imported\u00a0in\u00a0to this country. The fact remains that the drought is not the only reason for the poor harvest but was the neglect of existing estates due to high cost of fertilizers and inclement weather this year. What is necessary is to inculcate among\u00a0growers and give incentives for\u00a0practicing modern methods such as use of organic fertilizer\u00a0and drip irrigation to grow coconuts in the growing\u00a0areas. The\u00a0ban in felling coconut trees has\u00a0only a minimal effect. Drip irrigation though has a high initial capital will pay back in the long term because the use of water is very minimal and hence the trees will withstand\u00a0droughts of long duration..<\/p>\n

Notwithstanding the short term solution of importations, the long term solution should be import substitution which has only been a catch\u00a0phrase\u00a0of many a government since\u00a0independence;\u00a0not yielding satisfactory results due to lack of political will of populist policy makers.<\/p>\n

Yearly escalation of prices of rice during the latter part of every year for the last 40 years is clearly reflected in statistics compiled by the Central Bank and the Department of Statistics. Therefore it is not\u00a0an unexpected increase in prices. Steps should have been taken at least in the month of May to meet the\u00a0yearly shortage and whatever decrease in quantities on account of the long drought without procrastinating till the crisis became fully blown. The failure to take timely action is a severe\u00a0set back and a condition this government is afflicted with when it comes to cost of living.\u00a0The formal method of importing rice is to call for open tenders or from prequalified suppliers.\u00a0Initially the reorder levels and reorder quantities should be determined and arrival periods adjusted ensuring\u00a0not to have a backlog. Then the\u00a0specifications\u00a0such as unhusked\u00a0grains, black\u00a0seeds, insect attacked\u00a0seeds, broken\u00a0seeds,\u00a0moisture content percentages per ton,packaging,\u00a0should be specified.\u00a0Despite\u00a0all these precaution the suppliers\u00a0especially\u00a0in India and Pakistan can obtain quality certificates from\u00a0unscrupulous\u00a0cargo\u00a0surveyors. Therefore it is of\u00a0utmost\u00a0importance\u00a0to send Sri Lankan quality control officers from the procuring institutions\u00a0to be at the port of loading. These officers dare not give false certificates because they know very well that they will lose their job. \u00a0Emergency imports are a method of manipulating the needs of the commission agents.<\/p>\n

One cannot grasp how 100, 00\u00a0MT of\u00a0white\u00a0Nadu riceper month\u00a0(par boiled)\u00a0be consumed by this country. Par boiled\u00a0white\u00a0rice is\u00a0mostly consumed\u00a0in\u00a0the\u00a0estate sector.\u00a0The southerners prefer\u00a0partially\u00a0red rice\u00a0par-boiled or raw, and the\u00a0northerners\u00a0need\u00a0par\u00a0boiled complete red\u00a0rice.\u00a0The urban middle class consumers\u00a0prefer Samba, Keeri Samba or Supiri keeri Samba (Short\u00a0grain parboiled\/raw red or white\u00a0rice) Sri Lanka\u2019s \u00a0 2016\/17 total production of rice is\u00a01.4 million metric tons. Government envisages\u00a0importing\u00a0100, 00M\/T every month from Dec 2017 to March 2018\u00a0viz.\u00a0a total\u00a0of 400,000. Considering the fact that there have been heavy rains;\u00a0the farmers were hopeful\u00a0to have a good harvest but their\u00a0hopes\u00a0\u00a0have\u00a0been battered on\u00a0account\u00a0of the\u00a0severe\u00a0shortage of Urea. Here again is a short sighted policy of importing Urea. In short it is inefficiency,\u00a0lack of foresight and manipulation.\u00a0The private\u00a0sector\u00a0importers\u00a0will import quantities prudently and sell their stocks at a profit. The festive season will see unprecedented price hike of rice.<\/p>\n

The state has never bought more than 10% of the Paddy harvest because it does not have the finance and the logistics to\u00a0do so.\u00a0This was so even when the Paddy Marketing Board\u00a0was\u00a0in full fly. Even what is procured by the state is low quality rice. The best quality is either hoarded by the millers and traders or\u00a0farmers themselves with a view to making\u00a0unconscionableprofits. The the Rice Mafia\u201d is within the government itself.<\/p>\n

The latest scheme\u00a0by the trade ministry headed by Minister\u00a0Badiuddeen\u00a0is\u00a0spelling out\u00a0PMB should\u00a0sell Paddy only to the Sathosa. Apart from the\u00a0Sathosamills at Higurakkoda\u00a0and Pannegamuwa which were set up during my time with Indian aid. These two mills are now defunct.\u00a0There\u00a0are well over thousand small time millers.\u00a0What the Trade ministry does is to sell back the paddy to private\u00a0small time\u00a0millers\u00a0throughthe\u00a0Sathosa.\u00a0Why\u00a0should\u00a0private millers buy Paddy from Sathosa\u00a0when they can go direct to the PMB and buy at a lower\u00a0price?\u00a0It is clear that Sathosa\u00a0has now become the commission agent for paddy.\u00a0Who\u00a0collectsthe\u00a0Commission?<\/p>\n

The indications are that the cost of living would worsen towards the Sinhala and Hindu New year\u00a0with more price escalations especially in\u00a0respect\u00a0of vegetables.\u00a0To sight one astonishing example is how vegetables\u00a0such as\u00a0Potatoes\u00a0and Beet root\u00a0grown\u00a0in the Nuwara Eliya District is\u00a0transported\u00a0to Dambulla Economic\u00a0center\u00a0by middlemen and then transported back to Nuwara Eliya town for sale. Of the vegetable and fruits harvested in this country 40% perish in transport and handling. When the\u00a0previous\u00a0government attempted\u00a0to reduce\u00a0this wastage by introducing crates in\u00a0transport, it\u00a0had to be abandoned\u00a0on account of thepressure brought on\u00a0by the transported and the middlemen.<\/p>\n

It is heartening to see private sector super market chains have come to the rescue of vegetable and fruit farmers.\u00a0 The embedded\u00a0farmers\u00a0to the supermarket chain\u00a0cultivate crops under the supervision of the supermarket\u00a0company.\u00a0They are provided with funds\u00a0not only for cultivation, funds\u00a0for the education of childrenare also given. \u00a0The farmer is expected to give the harvest to the super market collecting\u00a0centers\u00a0in the region. The transport to Colombo is by crates and perishability is around 15%. Super market vegetables and fruits are better in quality and lower in price.<\/p>\n

The eyewash\u00a0on\u00a0the\u00a0pretext of\u00a0fair prices\u00a0will end up resulting in more\u00a0hardships\u00a0to the majority poor.<\/p>\n

Upali Cooray<\/p>\n

Egalawan288@gmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Former General\u00a0Manager\u00a0of SATHOSA<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Upali Cooray\u00a0Former General\u00a0Manager\u00a0of SATHOSA Prime\u00a0Minister\u00a0Ranil Wickramasinghe has said\u00a0government\u00a0has taken measures to introduce fair price shops in collaboration with private sector and Sathosa to ensure fair prices for essential commodities in the open market. This statement of the prime minister is something like dousing fires without preventing fires. Considering the fact that the oncoming\u00a0crucialelections scheduled for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73263\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}