This thought perhaps adequately sums up the state of the fuel and gas markets at the moment; a free for all black market of petrol and gas wholesalers, administrators, middlemen, retailers, drivers and brokers. It's where all the fuel and gas from the sporadic trickle of tankers coming into Nepal ends up andif you can pay over the odds, everything is available.
This black market boom is not entirely surprising because restrictions breed resourcefulness and people with an entrepreneurial bent (for lack of a better word) eventually find a way around prohibitions or in our case, blockades. Some of the most colourful – and notorious – characters like Al Capone and Haji Mastan owe their names and infamy to their prowess in skirting regulations during prohibitions. We have our own Haji Mastans here in Nepal; only they are part of the establishment and deal not in alcohol but in fuel and gas.
Mind you, all of these are not your usual amateurish transactions, as my friend described to me but rather slick operations – reference based introductions, quality guarantees, clandestine locations, vehicle to vehicle transfer – carried out with the sort of coordination and efficiency that would make any management consultant blush. Today there are people within the political and administrative apparatus who have done brisk business and are sitting on piles of money or others who have ingratiated themselves with higher rungs of power and are waiting to cash in on their favours. For many, it has truly been a festive season of 'bumper upahars'.
There is no shortage of voices calling for an end to the black marketing of these products and the logical choice seems to be to agree with them.While I'm not going to advocate for black marketing, I'm not crying myself hoarse over it either because we at least have the option of buying fuel and gas, even by parting with eye watering amounts. Yes, it hits the economically weak more than others but left to the government's opaque distribution system all of us would only just about get a whiff of it. Nothing more, nothing less.
This ultimately would do no one any good. Get rid of this black marketing and the poor would fare no better. If people have an emergency, are desperate to go home, complete some work, pick and drop tourists, make hospital trips, cook for their families or meet someone they would at least have an option to beg, borrow, steal and overpay. It is admittedly not a very appealing option but if needs must, then this at least gives them a choice.
Our country is running because of the black market driven by free market principles – transactions based on demand and supply where parties agree to fix a price without state intervention. There are, of course, those who call them traitors, but I take a different view to them – to each his own. There are obvious questions of ethics like quality of product and accountability for it. But when has quality been guaranteed in any of the products we buy, in particular the calibration of machines, weight, volume and quality of these particular products? We take a risk every day in that respect and the accountability of our traders and government towards us has only ever been limited to Dashain monitoring, if at all. It does not call for a great leap of faith judging by our own everyday risk taking standards.
And while we struggle on a daily basis, the government supplies their official's bikes and cars with fuel. They seem to think that it is only their officials who actually do any work and the irony of it is just hilarious. It's not like the rest of us have to report to work, just our very hard working government officials. The black market and special preference has also given rise to our very own special 'undeclared economic blockade' version of the 1% - haves and 99% - have nots, popularized by the Occupy Wall Street movements. While those with power and/or money and connections or jobs who make up the 1% go sailing around blissfully, the remaining 99% are the ones having to suffer for their mistakes. A predominantly 'communist' government showcasing capitalism at its finest. The lean towards the north may well be truly on.
Anyway, this phenomenon is here to stay as long as this problem persists. The police will only ever catch the small fish to provide fodder for the news machines, the 'students' who burn bikes and block the roads for a one rupee increase in fuel or cylinder prices will be conspicuously absent while the governments give itself a pat on the back for electing people to ceremonial posts that no one really cares about.
All the triumphalism and hoopla brought on by the token appointments (whether they relate to gender or ethnicity) are irrelevant to us. What we are concerned about is the security of our children's education, the cost of our food and medicines, being able to light our kitchen fires and travel with dignity. The end to this uncertainty is nowhere in sight but in the meantime the show goes on. As Michael Corleone – in one of the most memorable lines in The Godfather – so clearly put it, 'It's not personal. It's strictly business.'
gunjan.u@gmail.com
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