MY goods are just lying around, and with the sudden slashes and rebates made by the Centre, people like us who have already purchased at a higher price will be ruined, said Satyanarayan Pal, a dealer in edible oil at the wholesale market in Posta, Kolkata, when Frontline met him on April 1.
The mustard oil I purchased at Rs.80 a litre, I had to sell at Rs.72 three days ago; today I am selling it at Rs.68 and tomorrow it will probably be sold at Rs.66. Rice bran oil, which we stocked at Rs.60 a litre, we now have to sell at Rs.57, and palm oil, which we bought at Rs.62 a litre, is now going at Rs.60, he says. The inflation has brought down demand drastically. Where just a few months ago I was selling, say, 100 tins, I can barely sell 10 tins today, he says.
The situation has been extreme. In December 2007, mustard oil was priced at around Rs.62 a litre. By end February this year, the price had gone up to Rs.73, and by March 7 it peaked to Rs.80 a litre. We have been forced to sell at a loss, he says.
My business is down 50 per cent, says Sukumar Dey, a dealer in foodgrains at the Posta market. Until three months ago, the cost of pulses was Rs.43 a kilogram. That has now increased to Rs.51 a kg. I bought besan (gram flour) on February 21 at the rate of Rs.2,400 a quintal but today [April 1] it is Rs.2,700. Matar [dried peas], which I purchased at Rs.2,150 a quintal in the same period, is today Rs.2,350 a quintal, he says.
People are buying less and among the worst hit as a result are people like Stephen Naskar, an itinerant vegetable vendor. Two months ago I earned a margin of Rs.100 a day. But for the past few weeks I consider myself lucky if I can make Rs.70, he says. With vegetables like beans and peas getting more expensive, and the price of potatoes coming down, the poorer consumers are sticking mostly to potatoes and that is not doing my business any good either, he added.
We can afford only potatoes, which is still available for Rs.5 a kg, says Geeta Sarkar, a domestic who earns Rs.2,000 a month. We have had to cut down even on kerosene and mustard oil, and have stopped eating dal (lentil) whereas even a month ago we used to buy about 100 gram a day.
Mahesh Sharma, a foodgrains retailer in Burra Bazar, Howrah, says the number of consumers and the purchase per customer has come down. Even four months ago, consumers bought, on an average, 1 kg of foodgrain a week, but today I am selling 25 per cent less, he says.
The burden of rising prices has separated Gourango Goldar from his family. He was a field assistant and data sample collector of a Central government organisation and is now unemployed. After 14 years of service I have lost my job on account of outsourcing of my functions by my employer. The inflation has made my burden completely unbearable. A month ago my wife left our household along with our child, as I was unable to support them. She will not return until the situation improves, he said.
Pensioners, too, are feeling the pinch. The situation is entirely the result of the policies adopted by the Centre, says Prabir Sarkar, general secretary of the Paschim Banga Rajya Sarkari Pensioners Samity (West Bengal State Government Employees Pensioners Samity). With forward trading, large companies are building up stocks for speculation, weakening the efforts of the Food Corporation of India and the public distribution system to hold the price line, he says.
Suhrid Sankar ChattopadhyayCOMMents
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