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Cabinet paper submitted to control prices till July
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Shortages in some essential items
Speaking to The Sunday Morning, Essential Food Commodity Importers and Traders Association President G. Rajendran said: “Due to the panic buying that took place over last week, essential items such as rice are seeing a shortage in supply to the market. With the Government restricting imports of rice and other pulses, the locally produced rice and pulses are at present in short supply. This is because there is a bigger demand for the food items in comparison to supply.”
According to Rajendran, traders are now keeping the retail prices at a high range to discourage the consumer from purchasing larger quantities at a given time.
Meanwhile, National Movement for Consumer Rights Protection Chairman R. Withanage pointed out that given the present pandemic situation, the Government should have a proper programme in place to ensure food security for all its citizens.
“Consumers can obtain essentials at controlled prices only through the Sathosa network. However, when consumers visit the said outlets to purchase the said relief packs or other essentials, they are unable to make purchases because the items have run out of stock. The Government should therefore look at streamlining their supply chain at this point to ensure there is sufficient stocks available for the consumer to purchase,” Withanage exclaimed.
While traders are looking to match the demands of the consumer, there are also reports of contaminated, expired, and substandard food items being released to the market.
CAA to crackdown
Speaking to The Sunday Morning, Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) Spokesperson Asela Bandara said: “We are deploying our teams to monitor such activities and take legal action against institutions that are selling contaminated, expired, and substandard food items. Apart from that, consumers can directly complain to the CAA hotline 1977 about any such incidents they come across, and we will carry out necessary investigations immediately.”
On Wednesday (5) Trade Minister Dr. Bandula Gunawardena stated in Parliament that a cabinet paper has been tabled to keep the prices of several essential commodities stable in the next three months (May-July).
During February, March, and April, prices of several essential commodities such as dhal and sprats remained stable without any shortage, the Minister said.
The Minister pointed out that Sathosa was distributing goods islandwide at low prices and that the daily income of Sathosa exceeded Rs. 100 million, earning between Rs. 300 and Rs. 400 million per day for the first time in its history between the period of 1-13 April.
Rs. 1,000 Sathosa relief pack – phase 2 The second phase of Sathosa “Sahana Malla” programme was launched by Minister of Trade Dr. Bandula Gunawardana from 2 May, to provide consumers with the opportunity to obtain high-quality products at the lowest possible prices, avoiding the hassle of purchasing essential items in the face of the rapidly spreading Covid-19 pandemic in the country. “The specialty of the Sathosa Sahana Malla 2 is that for Rs. 1,000, the consumers can purchase one kilogramme of samba rice, 1 kg of Nadu rice, 1 kg of flour, 1 kg of Australian red dhal, 200 g of Thai sprats, 1 kg of white sugar, 50 ml of hand sanitiser manufactured by the Government Industrial Technology Institute, 100 g of tea certified by the Tea Marketing Board, 50 g of soya meat, and 100 g of chilli flakes through the CWE outlets islandwide,” the Minister said. The Minister also stated that consumers who purchase this relief pack for a sum of Rs. 1,000 will be able to obtain one packet of Highland milk powder, at a price lower than the prevailing market price. Accordingly, this relief will be provided only to the customer who obtains the relief bag through Sathosa outlets.
