Dr. Seid Hassan*I. INTRODUCTION
The government of Meles Zenawi announced that it was imposing price caps on select merchandize goods, the first round of the imposition affecting 18 food items as of January 6th, 2011. After gathering several hundred local merchants at the meeting hall of the PM Office, Messrs. Zenawi, Melaku Fanta who is the general director of Ethiopian Revenue and Customs Authority and State Minister of Trade, Ahmed Tusa, accused the businessmen and businesswomen of price gauging, hoarding and engaging in unhealthy competition. The three men said that the merchants were exploiting the existing weak government regulations while at the same time using world-wide price hikes and the recent devaluation of the birr as an excuse to jack up the prices of their goods.(i) Concurrent with the imposition of caps on prices of certain commodities, Messrs. Zenawi, Fanta and Tusa also vowed to “abolish this market disorder” and enhance competition down the road. Until the newly installed proclamation is put to effect to abolish the market disorder, they told the merchants that the authorities would use price caps and “cutting the fingers” of merchants in the short-term. For anyone who watched the entire taunting process and Mr. Meles’ rants as well as the stunned faces and complete silence of the 584 businessmen and women, he/she would realize that the gathered attendee s were really frightened. They had to be reticent because they knew that Meles has made good on his “I will cut your fingers” threats in the past. They knew that he has sent quite a few of them (most of his victims being non-TPLF/EPRDF members, and those whom he “did not like the color of their eyes”) to prison and closed down their businesses. The reproach was also accompanied with incredible and empty threats, two of the empty threats being his intent to supply the goods using the state-owned businesses and foreign suppliers.Read More
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