Our Socialist Ways

Today the Sri Lankan government announced price controls on rice. From the Daily Mirror:

The government in a move to control the escalating prices of locally produced rice imposed maximum wholesale and retail prices from midnight yesterday. A gazette notification to this effect was issued last night.

According to the new government regulations, the retail price of Samba rice will be Rs 70 per kilo while the wholesale price will be Rs 63. Prices have been fixed for Nadu, Rathu Kekulu and Sudu Kekulu rice as well.

Trade Minister Bandula Gunawardene told a news conference last night that this decision was taken to resolve the current crisis in the marketing of rice and to control the sky rocketing prices. He said this was the first time in the country’s history that price control had been imposed on rice.

[..]The minister said that those who sell above the specified rates and those who hide stocks would be severely dealt with under the Consumer Protection Act. [link]

This is coming from the supposedly pro-market minister of trade and consumer affairs, Bandula Gunawardene who previously warned that he would introduced legislation which could bark and bite solve the problem of cost of living. With pro-marketers like this, who need socialists?

No, I'm not saying we are on the road to serfdom just yet, but like I've said before, we still have this socialist mentality which assumes we can centrally plan the economy. It's one thing allow the market to flourish and introduce regulation where you think it's inefficient (I would argue against it, but at least that's tolerable), it's quite another to believe that a government bureaucrat knows the accurate price of something.

chick peas and green gram for the new year

That's what Bandula Gunawardene wants you to eat next year.
From the bottom-line,

With the price of flour shooting up by Rs. 9 per kilo with immediate effect, Minister of Trade and Consumer Affairs Bandula Gunawardena yesterday demanded Sri Lankans not to rely on wheat flour instead, cultivate and consume more chick peas and green gram as an alternative to flour Reacting to the announcement from Prima, the minister told The Bottom Line that there was no point in taking legal action against the flour company again.

“Already three cases are pending in courts with regard to Prima irregularly increasing flour prices, sans approval from the Consumer Affairs Authority,” he said.

“So, until the court decides, we ask the public to cultivate grains and to eat chick peas and green gram,” Gunawardena said. (emphasis added) [link]

Sigh. There's a reminder that we haven't progressed much from the days when the government dictated what we have for lunch. So much for the "Open Economy". I wonder why the bright heads at the Ministry haven't figured out why there is a monopoly in the first place, here's a pointer - get rid of the consumer affairs authority. But wait, no wonder they wont figure that out, nobody likes being unemployed.

Bandulanomics : How to control Cost of Living.

Now why didn’t anyone think of this..

From the Daily Mirror:

Prison sentences without bail will be included in the new Consumer Affairs Act (CAA) due to be presented as an “Emergency Act” to Parliament soon.

The government announced these fresh measures yesterday in a bid tocurtail the rising cost of living by introducing “teeth” to the Act to prevent companies from arbitrarily increasing prices without prior permission from the government. While still in the formulation process, Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Bandula Gunawardena pledged to give more power to the revamped Act and ensure that legal measures can be taken against companies involved in production and sale of essential items. [..]

“We are working with the Prime Minister and officials from the Legal department to make sure that this Act does not just “bark” but has the power to “bite.” [..]

It was unclear what products would be included, but the Minister revealed that in addition to the fines that are presently imposed, prison sentences without bail could be imposed on the offenders.
[..]

The Minister asked people to notify fax number 2300516 if there was any scarcity. [link]

Once notified, the ministry will immediately email back all the necessary items.

It’s great to see this kind of creativity from a government minister, everyone’s been wrong all along. It’s not Oil stupid, and definitely not over spending or printing of money. It’s been those evil evil companies producing ‘essential items’. Now if we put them in jail – problem solved.

The only additional requirement, (as the minister has subtly articulated above) is to employ dogs to train the act to ‘bite’, not just ‘bark’. Assistance from the Prime Minister will be sought for this purpose.

As his next project, the Minister aims to eradicate poverty by shooting down poor people.