RSS Wing Calls for Determining Selling Prices Based on Production Costs Rather Than Demand, Supply Dynamics

GG News Bureau

Panipat, 12th Sept. At a time when common people are feeling the pressure of price increases due to a continuing inflationary trend in the economy, an RSS-affiliated organization, Akhil Bharatiya Grahak Panchayat (ABGP), working for consumers’ interests has demanded that the selling price of goods should be determined on the basis of production cost and not the demand and supply dynamics of the market

“We demand from the Government of India to stop the current market based selling price determination process of goods and make it production price based. Along with this, a price formula should be created for determining the selling price of goods. On the basis of that, MRP of the goods should be written on the packaging,” an official statement by the Akhil Bharatiya Grahak Panchayat (ABGP) said Saturday.

The RSS’s consumer-centric wing hosted an event in Samalkha, Haryana’s Panipat district, as part of its golden jubilee year celebrations, where the statement was released. RSS chairman Mohan Bhagwat and Union Minister of State for Consumer Affairs Ashwini Chaube both attended the ceremony.

“At present, customers all over the world are facing the problem of unnatural selling prices. Due to which goods are not available to them at fair prices and they are being exploited to a large extent. The principle of fair selling price is not new to the world. This has been going on since ancient times. In India, four to five hundred years before Christ, Kautilya and Shukracharya had propounded the formulas regarding determination of selling price of goods. Almost the same views were also expressed by American and European economists,” the ABGP said.

It was claimed that whatever economic literature was published in Europe and America regarding the selling price of various things, this price was decided by adding some profit to the production price of the items. It claimed that Saint Aquinas said, “Just value is the value obtained by including a fair dividend in the value of production”.

“But capitalist economy succeeded in changing these human welfare principles of economics. Due to which the selling prices of goods started being decided not on the basis of their production cost, but on the basis of demand and supply in the market,” the ABGP stated.

“Contrary to the ancient traditions of economics, this unnatural process of determining the selling prices of goods remains a major basis of customer exploitation in the world. In order to adjust this process more in their own interest, producers have created a practice of inventing new definitions in economics, making mutual coordination, adjusting production and issuing unfair selling prices. The process of declaring MRP in our country is also an integral part of this conspiratorial pricing process,” it said.

The RSS wing also cautioned people against consumerism, claiming that the main goal of capitalist systems was to maximize profits.