Make-Believe Price Freeze

Make-Believe Price Freeze D P Sharma NEW DELHI'S approach to the management of the admittedly difficult edible oil situation betrays not only a lack of proper perception of the basic market fundamentals but also a feeling of helplessness bordering on desperation. What else is one to make of three union ministers (Manmohan Singh, Chidambaram and Kamaluddin Ahmed), the Gujarat chief minister and his state civil supplies minister meeting representatives of oil millers and the trading community at Gandhinagar on November 30 to persuade them to agree to a voluntary reduction of Rs 5 per kg in the retail price of groundnut oil to Rs 38 per kg and maintain it at this level for at least three months?