Since the government’s programme to sell rice at controlled prices has been completely unsuccessful, a discussion under the patronage of President Maithripala Sirisena is to be held today (14) to seek a solution aimed at providing relief to consumers who are facing difficulties.
Rice traders point out that the people are used to local rice such as Samba, Nadu and Raw Rice and are not very much in favour of imported rice.
They added that local varieties of rice cannot be sold at the State controlled prices because wholesale stocks were purchased at Rs 95 per kilo. They also said that the maximum profit earned from a kilo of rice together with transport costs is between Rs 2 and 3.
Last week, a stock of 3,000 tons of imported rice was distributed to Sathosa outlets and another 3,000 tons of rice are to be distributed during this week as well.
A spokesman for the Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) said that traders who sell rice at prices higher than the controlled rate will be prosecuted. People have been given the opportunity to provide information on such traders and lodge complaints via telephone number 1977.
Rice traders in Pettah said that they had purchased stocks at high prices and if they are compelled to sell according to State specified control prices they would have to suffer a loss of Rs 25-30 on a kilo and if raids are carried out and legal action taken it would be a very serious injustice.
The Rice Mill Owners’ Association (RMOA) said that, a stock of 10,000 tons of protected paddy which was in the custody of the Paddy Marketing Board (PMB) has been handed over to a limited group of rice mill owners and that there is no proper system of getting the rice into the hands of the consumer.
Rice mill owners of Marandagahamula said that when the harvest of the Maha season was being gathered, adequate quantities of stocks of paddy were purchased from Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa and Ampara but for the last Maha season there were not enough paddy because a few large-scale mill owners had purchased stocks in bulk.
Anyhow, in the areas of Colombo, Gampaha, Nugegoda, Kadawatha and Negombo the retail price of a kilo of Nadu Raw Rice and Samba exceeded Rs 95 in the open market as of yesterday (13) and at village level the price was up to Rs 100.00.
