NOTE 63 consumer and cover up the inefficiency through hiked-up prices. The Monopolies Commission was created to enforce the Monopolies and Restricted Trade Practices Act. As it stands today, product monopolies are difficult to come by. Hardly any case has been referred by the government to the Commission in this regard. The Commission could hardly touch the fringe of the problem of restricted trade practices. Consequently, about 100 business houses control more than 75 per cent of production of the organized industrial sector. Price control is meant to deal with the problem of maintaining the prices of essential goods at reasonable levels in the interest of the consumers. But controls have been selective. The machinery of the government has not been geared up to administer controls efficiently.Gonsequently black market operations have been rampant in controlled commodities. Capital has also been wilfully neglecting the production of controlled commodities, being often diverted to the highly profitable sectors of luxuries and comforts. Fabulous profits have been reaped in such uncontrolled areas of operation, thereby aggravating the shortage of essential goods. Controls and Rationing Inefficient administration of controls has prompted many economists and commissions to recommend selective decontrol. What is forgotten is that under scarcity conditions decontrol would only lead to higher prices. The producer, trader and speculative hoarder have all exploited the sellers' market to the hilt. As a result the consumer is left high and dry. The fabulous profits reaped by the textile industry in India in recent years is an instance in point. While crying hoarse about recessionary conditions, industrial prices have not shown signs of decline. The profit index keeps moving up. Obviously, the producer and trader reap the benefits of technological progress, productivity and higher prices while the per capita consumption in real terms at lower income levels is deteriorating. To sum up, the macro policies of fiscal protection, taxation, and price control and so on are oriented to favour the savers and investors rather than the consumers. There has been some increase in productivity in every sector of the economy due to technical progress and developmental effort. But the benefits have accrued to the profit earners rather than the masses of consumers. Pricing in public utilities and other infra. structutal facilities has favoured the big industrialists and farmers more than anybody else. Productivity increases in agriculture have only made the rural rich richer. There has been considerable increase in industrial productivity. But the share of industrial workers in value added has steadily declined. On the other hand, there has been impressive increases in the index of industrial profit. At the same time consumer prices have risen over the plans. Controls have been halty and patchy. An inept enforcement machinery has enabled the producer and trader to reap fabulous profits in a sellers' market rather than protecting the basic interests of