Question

because of corona virus scare our local drug stores ran out of face masks but some entrepreneurs have orderd these from china but are selling them at very high prices but our government has called this gouging and accuse these seller of taking an unfair advantage of an emergency the goverment has made these seller pay a fine and confiscated their inventions do you think this is good goverment policy to stop this trade ? why or why not?

Answer 1

There are two aspects to the above stated case.

Aspect 1. The entire country is affected heavily by Covid 19 and is facing a devastated impact of the same, The mask at this time is an essential commodity required by every citizen as a safety measure. So any hoarding and selling such essential item at this time has to be checked, so that it remains affordable for all the consumers and sellers are not able to practice gouging. From this poin of view it is a good government policy.

Aspect 2. We all know that due to Covid 19 all supply chains have been hit hard, manufacturing has been hit in China itself being an epicentre of Covid 19. So cost of production is   bound to rise at this period of time. So, Government before charging penalities and confiscating product must give an opportunity to the seller to provide records of cost involved and price being charged, so that no fair business entity is penalised.