Protecting the consumer

The Government’s decision to enact legislation to loosen the stranglehold of monopolies on the consumer public is a move in the right direction.

These entities are today virtually holding the Government to ransom by getting it to approve price hikes on such essentials such as milk food and flour knowing this to be a fait accompli.

Consumer Affairs Minister Bandula Gunawardena who is today in the firing line of consumer wrath apparently has had enough of the carte blanche freedom enjoyed by these monopolies to jack up prices at will, has proposed to present a Bill in Parliament early next year to rein them in.

According to our lead story yesterday the Minister has referred to his former cabinet colleague Ravi Karunanayake’s move to add an amendment to the original Act to make monopolies immune from prosecution.

The Minister is now hell bent on rectifying this anomaly and hopefully the consumers will be spared further price hikes as a consequence.

Not only the monopolies, the Minister should also take effective steps to stop consumers being fleeced by unscrupulous traders.

Today traders jack up prices willy nilly and there is virtually no way to check this.

In addition to basic essentials there are other items such as fish and chicken which are consumed by the ordinary middle class which frequently go up in price.

Even though his ‘budget shop’ concept is to be lauded the Minister himself would admit that these cannot be patronised by all and hence measures are needed to expand its scope to reach a wider populace.

True, there is no way the Government could resort to price control in an open market economy but there is nothing to stop it giving it a human face as was the slogan of the PA Government that came into power in 1994.

The Minister would however to well to weigh the pros and cons of resorting to legislation to curb monopolies lest this sends a wrong message to prospective investors.

The Government should try to come into some form of understanding with these entities to get them to place a moratorium on price hikes for a fixed period in return for other concessions.

The Minister however cannot be blamed for acting in the way he did in the wake of steep rises in the price of flour and the poor man’s bread not to mention the knock down effect on all wheat based products.

In the alternative the Minister can spearhead a campaign to promote rice based food items that is now already on with extra vigour. Whether one likes it or not the open economy has come to stay and a free market does not lend itself to interventionist policies on the part of the Government.

Today multinational companies have got so entrenched in the national economy that even a single decision taken in their boardrooms has reverberations on the public. Driven by profit and bent on eliminating competitors these corporate giants are even able to influence authorities to do their bidding.

The Minister therefore will have to do a tight rope walk in protecting the interest of the consumer on the one hand while striving to grapple with the vicissitudes of a market economy. His is no doubt an unenviable task.