It is encouraging to note that the government will provide Trading Corporation's (TCB) products at fair price to some 4 million workers from 1 October today (Tuesday).The scheme would be launched in labour populated areas. Labour and Employment Adviser Asif Mahmud Sajeeb Bhuiyan confirmed it during a check acceptance ceremony held at the Secretariat on Sunday.
Given the rising cost of living in the country and unprecedented natural disasters occurring this year, we had repeatedlystressed on scaling up food distribution programmes for the poor andlow-income people. Supplying 4 million people with daily essentials at fair price will unquestionably bring some relief to workers, but in the long-run TCB must regularize and expand its open market sale schemes across the country.
However, our expectation from the interim government is to introduce pro-people policy reforms, so to help maximum number of people to procure daily commodities within their purchasing capacity.This, among other issues, means to stabilize food prices urgently, strengthen and ensure strict market regulation while create employment and entrepreneurship opportunities for the ordinary people.
Currently, TCB trucks are selling essentials at subsidized prices in metropolitan areas, and only sometimes at the district level. Since the past few weeks, demand for subsidizedkitchen essentialshave shot up much higher than current provision.
While the latest TCB drive to supply 4 millionwith kitchen essentials at low cost is encouraging, it is by no means enough. With a large number of people grappling with poverty, and even middle-class families struggling to maintain balanced diets, there needs to be a proper assessment of what and how much people need to even get by. The assessment should be complimented with a mechanism to ensure that the neediest arebeing regularly supplied. Going beyond metropolitan areas, more trucks need to be introduced in localities reaching low-income groups.
According to the World Food Programme (WFP), around 38 percent of low-income households in Bangladesh were food insecure in August, as essential commodity prices only slightly decreased after the interim government took office. Moreover, 3 in every 10 households could not afford an adequate diet in August. The number has now reportedly shot-up to 6 in every 10 households when considering only the low-income segment.
In conclusion, as a state-run trading agency,TCB,barely has any success story in stabilizing the market of essential commodities, so far. With the mandate of market intervention, when necessary, it has no tools to undo the bolts that so frequently tighten the market fences in favour of vested quarters. Furthermore, TCB was neither groomed nor empowered with adequate resources and freedom to perform miracles as successive political governments have vainly tried to project it.
It is time to introduce reforms within the TCB, so to make it emerge as an efficient trading corporation.
