EDITORIAL: The government will have only itself to blame if it turns out that it took too long to announce the minimum support price for the upcoming wheat crop and farmers who couldn’t wait any longer were forced to plant other crops instead. That, needless to say, would mean a completely unnecessary shortfall next year and authorities would have to scramble yet again to meet demand and control prices. It almost beggars belief that despite suffering all year on account of availability and prices of wheat and wheat flour the government would delay such a crucial decision for no reason at all. It was as far back as end-September, after all, that a parliamentary committee recommended raising the minimum price from Rs1,400 per 40kg to somewhere between Rs1,800 and Rs1,900 per 40kg and urged the government to act very quickly because farmers did not have long before deciding what to sow for the next season. Yet by mid- to late-October, when the ministry of national food security and research was trying to get the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet to raise the minimum support price to incentivise farmers and offset the likelihood of a shortfall next year, all the ECC could do was form a committee to look into the matter.
And even by end-October, when the ECC recommended raising the price to Rs1,600 per 40kg, the prime minister deferred the final decision for two days so that all provinces could be taken on board. Still, despite the incredible urgency of the matter and the prime minister’s direct orders to get the job done in two days, it took until this Tuesday for the government to finally ratify the support price. One can only wonder why it took so long to decide on the final Rs50. Why couldn’t they make this decision during the October meeting? All this is so bizarre that the only explanation that even begins to make sense is the government’s utter lack of experience, and indeed professionalism, when it comes to matters that require quick and decisive action. When the government’s indecisiveness drove the farmers to protest in Lahore, the official reaction was simply appalling and made matters much worse. For when farmers demanded a support price immediately, and a high one at that, they were baton-charged by the police and a large number was arrested. One protestor even died after the police charge.
The federal cabinet finally decided to fix the minimum support price at Rs1,650 per 40kg despite recommendations to raise it to Rs1,800 in light of the decision of Punjab and Sindh governments to set it at Rs2,000 because, it was thought, that such an arrangement would push the final wheat flour price in the market beyond the reach of the common man and risk causing widespread public discontent. No doubt another consideration, and a very valid one at that, was cutting down on the money that the government throws at certain sectors just to keep them solvent. The cabinet was also informed that presently the total volume of subsidies and grants amounted to more than Rs2 trillion, or 4.5 percent of GDP, which needed to be rationalised. The PM himself then very rightly noted that the current arrangement of subsidies and grants benefits the rich and poor alike whereas it should be changed to target the middle and lower income classes.
That observation, though correct, would require a very detailed overhaul to deliver any meaningful results on the ground, so the sooner the government goes to the drawing board about the matter the better. Hopefully, the ruling party will figure this one out in consultation with genuine stakeholders and not just rely on the bureaucracy to find solutions. It is already proving hard enough, as so often argued in this space, to cut the civil service down from being policymakers back to the mandated role of being policy takers. Besides, inefficiency typical of the bureaucracy is the last thing the government needs, especially on top of its own lazy way of handling this issue.
It is bad enough that those in charge are still groping in the dark about some of the most basic issues even after half an electoral cycle. And it would surely make things worse if they resort once again to tried-and-failed approaches. If the government had talked to the right people at the right time, the wheat support price announcement would never have been delayed like this. And it would already have started working on a much-needed formula of subsidy rationalisation.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020
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