COMMERCE, Trade and Industry Minister Chipoka Mulenga has suggested the introduction of price controls on essential commodities such as fertiliser and cooking oil, among others, to ensure that benefits are passed on to consumers. While we may agree that with the appreciation of the Kwacha, producers and others in the business sector have the moral obligation to pass its benefits on to the consumers, we disagree with Honourable Mulenga’s proposal. Introducing uniform prices for essentials goods sounds like a compassionate effort to protect Zambian consumers from profiteering producers, but beneath the rhetoric of fairness lies a dangerous policy idea that risks undermining the very economic progress the UPND government has worked hard to achieve. Price controls, no matter how well-intentioned,...