Vendors engineer false shortages to hike up rice price

Vendors have created a false shortage of rice to charge higher prices for the product, government authorities said.

Consumer Affairs Authority’s (CAA) Deputy Director Asela Bandara said most mobile vendors and shop owners were claiming there was a shortage of rice due to curfew simply to sell rice at higher prices.

He also said the vendors were trying to push the more expensive varieties of rice onto customers saying they had run out of other stocks.

“We have taken legal action against nearly 300 merchants who were found selling rice above the government-controlled price during the month of April,” he said. Fifteen mobile vendors were found selling rice for higher prices.

Despite the curfew the CAA was carrying out raids.

“Any merchant found selling rice above the government-controlled price will be taken to court,” Mr. Bandara said. “They can be fined or imprisoned if they are found guilty.”

Mr Bandara said CAA officials had the power to immediately arrest merchants trying to sell rice for higher prices.

He also said the CAA was also urging small and large- scale millers to mill and distribute rice to put an end to hoarding of rice.

Agriculture Ministry Secretary Neel Bandara Hapuhinne said the country had rice to sustain the country for nine months.

The current harvest was expected to be 3 million metric tons.

“Even though there are stocks with small- scale millers, farmers and the Paddy Marketing Board the majority of it is with large- scale millers,” Mr.

Hapuhinne said.

There have been complaints that rice varieties such as nadu and samba, which have a controlled price of Rs. 98 a kilo are being sold for Rs 115 and 125.

“The rich can buy rice for such high prices but the under-privileged families are unable to do so. When the government puts up controlled prices the vendors hide their stocks, close down their shops and stop selling goods,” the head of the National Movement for Consumer Rights Protection, Ranjith Vithanage, said.

Mr. Vithanage said when the government imposed a controlled price of Rs. 100 for tinned fish, vendors hid their stocks.

“We call on the Consumer Affairs Authority and the Paddy Marketing Board (PMB) and small- scale millers to collaborate and distribute rice to retail

and wholesale shops to put an end to the shortage of rice,” he said.

Brigadier Indrajith Kandanarachchi of the Sri Lanka Army Services Corps said the army had

been ordered to collect and transport paddy to the PMB, and that task had been completed. There had been no orders about distribution of rice stored at PMB stores.