Saturday, 27 October 2012

Ministry: Increase in Sugar Price Caused By Rise in Price of Raw Commodity






Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism ministry Secretary-General Datuk Mohd Zain Mohd Dom announced that Sugar will cost 20 cents more per kilo from today, which is RM1.65 in Peninsular Malaysia and RM1.75 in Sabah and Sarawak. Other than that, government also would withdraw its subsidy on the white bread from today and remove it from the price control scheme. Sugar price increases due to rise in price of raw commodity on the world market. However, government still maintaining a subsidy at 80 cents per kilogram. Other than that, price of sugar-based products also increases. The highest impact is on condensed milk. Malaysia Muslim Restaurant Owners Association (Persma) president Noorul Hassan Saul Hameed states that 2,200 members nationwide would absorb the price increase. Fomca president Datuk N. Marimuthu also mentions that, this is a way of reducing artificial shortages through hoarding.



A subsidy is a payment made by the government to producer. It decreasing the price paid by buyer and increasing the price receive by sellers. Therefore, when government decrease the subsidy for the sugar, the price paid by the buyer will increase and price receive by sellers will decrease. Other than that, when subsidy is decreases, there is some effect occurs toward the supply. A subsidy is like a negative tax. A tax is equivalent to an increase in cost, so a subsidy is equivalent to a decrease in cost. Since the subsidy is decreases, the subsidy brings a decrease in supply. This is because the subsidy decrease has caused the price receives by the seller decrease, therefore the seller supply less to the market.





Next, when the subsidy is decrease, the price paid by consumer increase but decrease the marginal cost of producing sugar. Marginal cost decrease is because producer makes less sugar, which means that they use fewer resources to produce sugar, so marginal cost used decrease.  Beside that, it also improves the efficient of sugar production. This is because subsidy always results in inefficient overproduction. At the quantity produced with subsidy, marginal social benefit is equal to the market price, which has fallen. Marginal social cost has increased and it exceeds marginal benefit, the increased production brings inefficiency. Therefore, when subsidy is decreases, the inefficient overproduction can be decrease. For example, Australia and New Zealand have stopped subsidizing farmers. The result has been an improvement in the efficiency of farming in these countries.  While U.S. and European farm subsidies is strong. Opposition to farm subsidies inside the United States and the Europe is growing, but it is not as strong as the pro-farm lobby, so do not expect an early end to these subsidies.



As we know that sugar is one of the most common complements goods to supplier. It was goods that used together with other goods. For example sugar is used in tea, canned drinks, milk, buns and cake. Therefore when the price of the sugar increases, it will cause the increase of price of others goods. As the law of demand suggests, when the price increase, the quantity demanded will decrease.  Therefore, the price of the sugar increases, the demand of white bread will be decreases.

If government willing to remove white bread, which is a Staple Convenience Consumer Goods from the price celling, it will able to decrease the illegal trading in black market.  This is because rice ceiling is the government regulation that makes it illegal to charge a price higher than a specified level. 
 
The effect of a price ceiling on a market depends crucially on whether the ceiling is imposed at the level that is above or below the equilibrium price.   I think that a price ceiling is set above the equilibrium price has no effect. The reason is that the price ceiling does not constrain the market forces. The force of law and the market forces are not in conflict. But a price ceiling below the equilibrium price has powerful effects on a market. The reason is that the price ceiling attempts to prevent the price from regulating the quantities demanded and supplied. The force of the law and the market forces are in conflict. Hence, if the price ceiling is removing, this kind of problem can be avoided.



Furthermore, white bread also considers as one of the substitute goods. It is a good with a positive cross elasticity of demand. This means a good's demand is increased when the price of another good is increased. If goods A and B are substitutes, an increase in the price of A will result in a leftward movement along the demand curve of A and cause the demand curve for B to shift out. A decrease in the price of A will result in a rightward movement along the demand curve of A and cause the demand curve for B to shift in. An increase in price will result in an increase in demand for its substitute goods. If two goods have a high substitutability, the change in demand will be much greater. Thus, economists can predict that a spike in the cost of a particular brand of detergent will likely result in a large change in demand for other brands, whereas a change in the price of pencils will have a much smaller effect on the demand for pens. This is because most detergents are very similar, and thus have high substitutability, whereas pencils and pens are only partial substitutes - while they are sometimes interchangeable, many consumers prefer one over the other and there are some situations where only one is acceptable, such as pens on legal documents or pencils on most high-school mathematics homework. Therefore, demand of white bread and the demand of its substitute good will increase.  Therefore, demand of white bread will decrease and the demand of its substitute good will increase.

 

Next, we spend some time in search activity almost every time we make a purchase. For example, when you are shopping for the latest smart phone, you would search for the store, which offers the best deal. So when a price is regulated and there is a shortage, search activity increases. The opportunity cost of a good is equal not only to its price but also to the value of the search time spent finding the good.  Searching activity is costly. It uses time and other resources gasoline that could have been used in other productive ways.


Then, a price ceiling also encourages illegal trading in a black market. Black market occurs when the equilibrium price exceeds the price ceiling. The level of black market rent depends on how tightly the price ceiling is enforced. With loose enforcement, the black market price is close to the unregulated price. But with the strict enforcement, the black market price is equal to the maximum price that a buyer is willing to pay for the white bread. Therefore, government remove the price ceiling from the white bread would only benefit the supplier but not consumer.


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