Racketeering in Ramazan

The difference between profiteering and racketeering in terms of prices charged for every-day commodities in Ramazan is a fine one, and the reality probably lies somewhere in between. The former is a dubious practice that is often just within the law, and the latter is a criminal activity that relates to the illegal extortion of money. Traders will argue that they charge the rates that the market will stand and that they are anyway in business to make a profit. Those rates may not be uniform across all commodities at all times of the year as markets and availability fluctuate, but there are well sourced reports from across the country that overcharging has reached unprecedented heights, and that in Ramazan.

Ramazan packages have been announced by the federal and provincial governments worth billions of rupees, and hundreds of Ramazan bazaars established nationwide. The machinery of the civil state has been trying to regulate commodity prices but with a spectacular lack of success — largely because for the other 11 months of the year there are no effective price control mechanisms anyway. Imagining that a price control superstructure that actually functions can be conjured from thin air the moment that Ramazan hoves into view is little short of delusional.

Few traders are going to indulge in the luxury of principles and scruples when it comes to making money. Such regulation as there is rarely gets invoked, quality controls are largely non-existent and second-rate products are sold at premium prices. Staples such as sugar are already in short supply and can only get more expensive as the days pass. There will be hoarding followed by releases on to the market of goods at extortionate rates as well as other 'manipulations' that lead to profit. The so-called utility stores are already in difficulty because of payment problems to suppliers and subsidiary companies, and less than a week into Ramazan the inflationary spiral is tightening. Sadly, this is nothing less than was expected and predicted. A holy month indeed.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 19^th, 2018.

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