Govt. says errant traders capitalising on foreign exchange crisis

While denying any significant shortages of imported essential commodities in the country, the government blamed the errant traders for increasing the prices of these commodities arbitrarily and hiding behind the prevailing foreign exchange crisis. This is leading to regional disparities in prices, a meeting yesterday highlighted.

This was revealed at the first meeting of the committee appointed by President Gotabya Rajapaksa, headed by Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa, to ensure there are no shortages of essential commodities in the country.
Although there are reports of shortages of milk powder, wheat flour and cement in the market, the committee members, who met yesterday, stressed that the country has sufficient stocks of these goods.

It was revealed that some errant traders were selling certain essential commodities at exorbitant prices after obtaining these goods under the concessions granted by the government.

In particular, Batik, Handloom and Local Apparel Products State Minister Dayasiri Jayasekara pointed out that the prices of some essential goods vary significantly from district to district, causing severe distress to the consumer. 
Although it is mandatory by law, Co-operative Services, Marketing Development and Consumer Protection State Minister Lasantha Alagiyawanna acknowledged that many of the traders are not displaying the prices of goods.
Therefore, the committee agreed to bring greater transparency to the mechanism of distributing essential commodities to the public.

Minister Rajapaksa suggested that instead of displaying the prices of all goods in three languages, it would be more practical to display only the prices of essential goods, which are more critical to the public.

Further, he urged the Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) to come up with a programme to generate a report on the state of essential goods in each district, on a daily basis.

The minister underscored that the government’s main intention is to minimise the impact of the forex crisis on the public as it is only temporary.