Problem of Rising Prices
Essay No. 01
The problem of rising prices is the greatest economic problem of India to-day. It is cutting. the throats of millions to-day because millions of people find it hard to earn one square meal a day. Millions in India to-day sleep without food at night and wake up hungry in the morning to do their day’s work. But all their day’s work does not promise them sufficient to eat and drink.
Prices have doubled in the last five years and many common things are now beyond the reach of common people. Even pulses have become a luxury and only the rich can afford them while meat sells at fabulous prices. More and more things are going beyond the pockets of the common people.
The problem on the face of it may seem quite simple. But in fad it is not. It is closely related to the welfare of the people. It own much to the administrative efficiency of the Government. It is the result of operation of a large number of causes.
The main cause of the rapid price rise is the increase in population. The demand for goods in is creasing day by day and the vested interests are taking undue advantage out of it.
The other cause is the inflation which is also the result of population explosion. During inflation there is a wide profit gap because the demand exceeds far ahead of the supply. The scarcity of goods provides opportunity for all sorts of evil practices like stock-pilling popularly known as hoarding. There is again the price-rise and a decrease in export which results in the loss of foreign exchange.
As a consequence, the rich get richer and the poor poorer. There exists a wide gap between the wholesale and retail prices. The money naturally goes in the hands of profit earners, businessmen, merchants and manufacturers. The result is that there is unequitable distribution of national wealth and the objective of the socialistic pattern of society is -defeated.
Some strict measures are required to be taken to control the situation. Two-pronged attack has to be launched in order to hold and bring down the price line. The short-term measures, such as fair price shops, rationing of provisions, distributing the scarce goods in an equalitarian manner, seizing the hoards, etc., will help the government to check the present situation from deteriorating. The long term measures, such as drafting a small plan, increasing bank rate, taxation, government borrowing, etc. will help the government to withdraw the huge amount of money pumped into circulation during the last few years.
The real answer to inflation lies in greater production and productivity. Industrial production can be increased by removing some problems like raw-material shortages, undue licensing restrictions against efficient large scale producers, and unreasonable labour problems are solved.
Prices are bound to increase in a developing economy and there can be no absolute price stability, as such. But limits should be defined. A modest increase in prices is not unhealthy for a developing economy like India.
Essay No. 02
The Problem of Rising Prices
Rising prices is one of the major problems of India. It has broken the back of common people. There are protest rallies and angry demonstrations. The number of people below poverty line is increasing. The distressed people sometimes say that the British rule was better than the present rule. The worst hit in this matter is the salaried class. The people get fixed pay. They have to bear the burden of taxes. They are on the brink of starvation.
One of the major factors for price-rise is the faulty policies of the government. The purchasing power of money has come down. There is no check on the government expenditure. Price line is linked with demand and supply principle. Supply can’t keep pace with the uncontrolled growth of population. All efforts to check the growth of population have proved useless.
Black-money is also responsible for unchecked rise in prices. Black money has increased rich-poor-gap. There is parallel economy working in the country. As long as black money exists, all talk of controlling price-rise sounds funny. Artificial scarcities also contribute to rice rise. Black-marketers and hoarders take undue advantage of the situation. They hoard goods and sell them at higher rates; Experience shows that the prices which once shoot up never come down.
The government should take steps to check price-rise. It should remodel its economic policies. The growth of population should be checked. The generation of black-money should be curbed. Fair-price shops should be opened for the poor people. Hoarders and black-marketers should be firmly dealt with.
Essay No. 03
The Problem of Rising Prices
The problem of rising prices has become very acute in India. There is rise in the prices of even necessary goods, making it difficult for even masses to purchase. The life of labourers and lower classes has become miserable. The price rise threatens the very existence of normal life as there is enormous increase in the prices of petrol, coal, steel and almost every important thing.
This rise however has affected the poor most. Enormous prices rise in essential commodities like, sugar, edible oils, pulses, kerosene etc. has made it difficult for them to make both ends meet. There is sharp increase in the prices of fertilizers and agricultural implements also making it beyond the buying capacity of farmers.
There are various reasons behind price rise. Firstly it is due to the holding tendency of businessmen who create artificial shortages to get more profit. The population of the country is also increasing at an alarming rate, which has resulted in increase in demand but as the production level is low the prices rise.
Besides political parties also accept funds from manufacturers and when they come to power they allow them to raise the prices of their products.
The rich people do not pay income tax and the resultant black money is spent lavishly and carelessly which leads to increase in prices. The deficit financing also leads to increase in the circulation of money in the term of currency, meaning money is in excess but things are in shortage, and that again results in rise in the prices of goods.
It is high time that the Government should look into this problem seriously.
