Regardless of whether it was a proactive move or one forced by circumstances, the decision of the finance minister to constitute a committee to form an action plan that will help reduce prices of sugar and edible oil is an important step in the right direction. It already says quite a lot that the decision was taken at the meeting of the National Price Monitoring Committee (NPMC) that meets every week to review prices of essential items like wheat and sugar. The government has clearly been forced onto the back foot in the matter of prices of some of the most important items of daily use by the public, and is now having to take steps that are meant to show people that it is taking the matter very seriously on top of actually controlling prices on the ground. Yet even as generally low growth in the wake of the pandemic has also led to lower inflation over the last quarter or so, for some reason relevant authorities have continuously struggled to keep a lid on prices of some very important items, especially wheat and sugar, even when market forces have not been responsible for such trends. First the government bought valuable time by blaming it all on hoarders and profiteers. But when it tried to use all the state’s might to control things – at least that is what the prime minister said – and still there was no difference it was forced to take measures like forming committees that gave the impression that it was keeping a very close eye on things. However, what is it going to do when, or if, even such theatrics don’t bear fruit? There are already in-built mechanisms, especially at the provincial level, to keep prices in check and common people from suffering too much. The fact that the government is having to run from pillar to post to show the people that it intends to take price control very seriously from now on only goes to show that it failed to ensure stability when it was supposed to. One can only hope that now it has its monitoring system properly worked out and any deviation from the normal demand-supply mechanism of the market will be promptly and effectively checked before any more burden is placed on the people. *