Prevent Shortages Before Festivals

Major festivals in Nepal are approaching, and so is a familiar problem: rising demand for essential goods, followed by supply disruptions, price increases and complaints of hoarding and black marketing. The government should not wait for shortages to become visible before it acts to stop them. By then, traders may already have taken advantage of the situation and consumers are left with few choices. The warning signs are already visible. LPG supplies have fallen short of demand, forcing households to worry about cooking fuel just as festival activity begins to rise. Sugar prices have also increased noticeably. Cooking oil, rice, fruits and other household essentials are showing similar pressure in the market. Some price increases may reflect genuine changes in supply, transport costs or production. But our experience shows that traders can also exploit festival demand by withholding stocks, creating artificial shortages and charging higher prices. LPG deserves particular attention. Time and again, the country has failed to replenish enough stock when the demand was higher than the supply. Consumers who couldn't readily access cooking gas ended up purchasing it privately at very high rates.That creates a market where honest consumers pay more while those controlling stocks benefit. National Assembly members have already urged the government to ensure adequate supplies of essentials, including cooking gas, ahead of Dashain and Tihar. Their concern should prompt action, not another round of promises.The first task is to know how much stock is available. The government should require importers, wholesalers and major distributors of essential goods to report their inventories regularly during the festival period. Such information would help authorities identify unusual stockpiling before it turns into a severe shortage.