Twin woes of the month of Ramadan

Ziauddin Choudhury

Every year two recurring anguishes of the month of Ramadan are price hike and Eid transportation. The
twin problems of Ramadan seem to multiply every year instead of abating. Prices of essentials rise like
tides when Ramadan starts, and so also woes of public transportation fester as Eid approaches. And the
government takes the blunt of criticism for failure to tackle the problems. Can the government really
intervene and alleviate the problems?

Take for example the price hike during Ramadan. The traders blame the price rise of commodities on
shortages and poor supply denying responsibility for creating any artificial crisis. Is supply a problem?
There was a time when a good number of consumer items such as grains, pulses, oil, and other spices
were not sufficiently produced in the country and had to be imported. Trading Corporation of
Bangladesh would import many such as commodities and would augment the supply line with the
imported items through private traders or in an earlier period market these directly through an agency
known as Consumer Supplies Corporation. The Government has stopped directly intervening in the
market since the closure of Consumer Supplies Corporation, and I am not sure TCB has any direct market
operational role except import of major consumer items. In other words, the government has left the
consumer market to operate on its own device, which is demand and supply.

There are plenty of reasons why the government stopped the marketing operations. First, abundant
production of agricultural commodities including rice. Second, great improvement in road
transportation. And third, which is very crucial, is rise of a network of businesses which helped
marketing products from field to urban centers. The periodic shortages of products expected to be
managed by government monitoring and imports. Normally this should work well. But it does not,
particularly when demands skyrocket particularly in Ramadan. Shortages suddenly appear and the
government reacts in a panic mode to address the shortage by quick imports often at a high price.

When the prices rise people expect the government to intervene and stem this rise, as though by a
magic wand. Because ours is a populist government, government leaders also try to placate people with
rhetorical utterances of stern measures against “dishonest traders” and assure public that the
government would do whatever it can to bring out prices. But nothing happens. Why?

First of all, market price is a function of demand and supply. All businesses look for ways to maximize
profit, a large part of which comes from growth in demand. An average urban family consumes twice
the food items of a normal month in Ramadan. Look everywhere, and you will see the enormous
amount of meat, pulses, grains, fruits and vegetables that are in the shelves of every bazar and
quantities that are being bought every day. We are in a feeding spree and prices will not deter us. It is
said price of a commodity is stretched to the extent the market (that is consumer) can bear. Our
protestations apart, the prices seem to thrive, and market seems to bear the prices merrily all along.

Prices of commodities cannot be fixed by price control. Price control only leads to shortages created
artificially by traders who choke the supply line. The only way prices come down when there is less
demand for a commodity. Yes, government may or can help price stability with a reliable supply line, but
it cannot bring down a price which only market determines. If we really want prices in Ramadan to come
down, we should restrain our greed.
The second misery of the month is just waiting on the wings. This is mass movement of people from one
place to another during Eid. Although we witness it in the metropolitan areas of Dhaka and Chittagong
mostly, its effect is felt throughout the entire country. Hundreds of thousand people leave these cities in
droves by buses, trains, and launches for their homes in villages to celebrate Eid with their kith and kin.
They leave in droves suffocating roads, railways, and water channels creating pandemonium of a
proportion that often leads to deaths, accidents, and disasters of an untold kind. The stories of people
lining up for tickets for trains, buses, launches from the middle of Ramadan and ending up with no
tickets or tickets with abnormally high prices have become a legend of this month. And no sooner than
this ordeal is over newspapers are flooded with narratives of crowded buses falling into ditches, people
falling from roofs of overcrowded trains, or launches sinking in rivers. When will we get rid of these
images?

Not until our planners give some serious thoughts to manage this seasonal transportation menace. The
government cannot provide suddenly a thousand buses or add a thousand bogies to address Eid
nightmare. But it can manage better the fleet the country has through a more disciplined approach
toward fleet management and booking arrangement. It can surely remove corruption and efficiency in
these systems through better oversight and implementation of rules and regulation. It can certainly ease
the road transportation by diverting the government owned fleet in Dhaka to handle passengers moving
out to other areas in this season (since Dhaka is virtually closed during the week). Besides introducing
special trains between Dhaka and other major cities during Eid, the rail authorities can introduce an
early booking both online and in person for travel well before the beginning of Ramadan and heavily
monitor ticketing system. For river traffic, the inland water administration can certainly coopt help of
launch owners to regulate launch safety and act against overcrowding. Along with these we need better
road and water safety through increased police vigilance and deterrent punishment for scofflaws.

Safe and hazard free transportation need not wait years to achieve. These are doable things and are
within the government’s reach. Only thing required is timely steps and adequate measures to achieve
these. May we all have a safe and happy Eid.