Anti-profiteering: As officials fail, magistrates told to check commodity prices

Court directs judicial magistrates to conduct summary trials of offenders on the spot.

HYDERABAD:

The term ‘price control’ usually conjures up a flurry of official activity in the month of Ramazan aimed to curb the escalation of food prices and penalise the offenders. For the rest of the year, however, little activity is seen to control the prices of commodities.

Consumers are largely left at the mercy of the market manipulators, hoarders, black marketers and profiteers who set the prices as government rates mostly remain unimplemented. Taking notice of this unbridled and excessive pricing of the commodities, the Hyderabad district and sessions court, on Friday, ordered the judicial officials to step in to check the exploitation.

“Judicial magistrates, within their jurisdiction, will be required to ensure that commodities are sold as per the official price list and that there is no hoarding or black marketing. They [judicial magistrates] may conduct summary trials of such offenders on the spot,” read the order issued by district and session judge Aijaz Khaskheli. The magistrates will have to submit weekly reports to the judge about their price control activities.

While the judicial officials will have to perform this additional duty, the Sindh government’s Supply and Prices Department, which is responsible for the price fixation and control, remains generally ineffective. The Sindh Essential Commodities Price Control and Prevention of Profiteering and Hoarding Act, 2006, authorises the department to fine the sellers if they are charging higher than the government approved rates. The enforcement, however, remains missing.

Helpless officials

“The fine is too low to stop profiteering,” an inspector told The Express Tribune on the condition of anonymity. The act allows a BPS-14 inspector to charge Rs500 from whole sellers, Rs200 from retailers and Rs100 from cart vendors. The penalty has to be paid within 10 days of the ticket’s issuance while the offender can challenge the ticket in the court. After ten days of non-compliance, the inspector can file a complaint in the court against the offender.

“Suppose we fine a fruit vendor Rs100 for charging Rs20 higher on one kg of apples. We will have to spend 10 times higher if we take the offender to court. There, we are faced with the task of proving our complaint in court, which is almost impossible,” he said, contending that the procedure worked to the advantage of the offender.

The same act also empowers the district controller of prices, who can be anyone from amongst the deputy commissioners or additional DCs, to fine up to Rs10,000 or file a court case for up to three months’ imprisonment. “This is the reason why we see raids, penalties and price control in Ramazan because the DCs, ADCs and ACs conduct daily raids in the market places.”

Speaking to The Express Tribune, a senior official of the department counted immobility of the staff, resistance of traders, the long interlude due to the LG system and delegation of the authority to the district administration officials as the main obstacles to the enforcement measures. “Hyderabad region includes Jamshoro, Matiari, Tando Allahyar and Tando Muhammad Khan districts. None of the staff working for the region is provided with transport facilities or any fuel allowance,” the official claimed.

Counter-allegations

Their excuses apart, the price inspectors are accused of taking bribes or gifts from the sellers in exchange for their favours. The traders also cited the long intervals between the price revisions as another reason for the discrepancy in rates. The commodity rates were set after every three months at a meeting chaired by the DC with representatives of the traders. Meanwhile, the Assistant Director of Hyderabad region Sajid Jokhio told The Express Tribune that since last month it has been decided to hold monthly meetings for price fixation. “Through the monthly reviews, the major complaints of the traders will be addressed and monitoring will also become effective,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 29^th, 2013.