Imphal, April 10 2010: Contrary to the sense of euphoria felt by the people of Manipur when the Indo-Myanmar border trade through Moreh was formally opened in April 1994 in the hope that the prophecy of Nongpok Thong Hangba (Opening of the eastern door) was coming true, Namphalong market opened by Myanmar on the opposite side of Moreh is becoming a place of charlatans, unscrupulous traders where any sort of price control mechanism is absent.

Following reports that traders and shopkeepers have been deceiving and duping unsuspecting customers, The Sangai Express conducted a spot assessment tour on March 30 .

The mode of business transaction at Namphalong market appeared to have undergone a sea change in the last few years.

Earlier, bargaining for prices of goods was unseen at Namphalong.

If any customer wished to bargain to get some concession, he/she had to make prolonged, intense and persuasive arguments.

But today, Nepalese and Myanmarese traders selling goods at Namphalong market seemed to have embraced a new design of exacting maximum profit from customers, majority of whom happened to be Indians.

As the military junta prohibits entry of journalists into the country, TSE went to Myanmar in the garb of a customer.

At one shop dealing in shoes and apparels, finger was pointed to a small pair of rubber shoes.

On being enquired about its price, the woman shopkeeper said, "70 Indian rupees".

But when Rs 50 was offered, the shopkeeper reduced the price to Rs 60 .

As the bargaining terms differed and began to walk away from the shop, the woman ran up and offered the shoes at the set price.

At another stall that deals mostly in slippers price of slipper of leather-foam was enquired to which the salesman said that the slippers were of fine quality and that they were manufactured in Korea.

"The price is 250 Indian rupees", he said.

After little bargaining, he offered the same slippers at Rs 180 and slashed it further down to Rs 150 when the salesman apparently realised that he was losing a customer.

At this point, the salesman agreed to sell the same pair of slippers at Rs 150 .

Such a practice/trend at the market was enough evidence that shopkeepers dupe customers at Namphalong market.

The same practice of shopkeepers putting up exaggerated prices, only to be reduced corresponding to the degree of bargaining or negotiation was observed in almost all the shops.

The next stop was the nearby fish market where a lady trader set price of one choi (measuring unit used by Myanmarese people) of a particular variety of dry fish at Rs 350 which was also supported by a young girl and another woman selling selling fish in a row.

It seemed they were doing the same trade as a group.

After a little bargaining, the dry fish was sold off at Rs 300 per choi.

Soon after, two Meiteis came there and asked price of the same variety of fish and answer was the same as told to this reporter, Rs 350 .

Instead of bargaining for the price, the two men offered to pay exactly the price the women were demanding.

Yet, they put up one condition.

That the weight of the fishes should be not any lesser than one choi.

This resulted in a heated altercation between the two men and the women fishmongers.

At last, the two men left the place without buying any fish.

This aroused a strong feeling of suspicion about the actual weight of the dry fishes which was bought just a few minutes back as one choi.

Even as the conscience felt was to insist on re-weighing the fishes already purchased, strange looks of the other fishmongers indicated the proposal would evoke wrath.

However, reality struck in an embarrashing way as the fish when weighed in another shop some distance away from the fish market was found to be 700 grams short of one choi.

Unwilling to be befooled by those women, a fervent request was made to the latter shopkeeper to complain about the ugly trick which she flatly rejected with caution that: "If I raise your complain, I will definitely face the wrath of everybody" .

Regardless of the wods of caution he fishmongers were approached with the insistence the fishes purchased some moments back should weigh a choi.

To this, the women asked for another Rs 50 if the fishes should weigh one complete choi which was conceded albeit Rs 10 less.

As they put in some more dry fishes in the bag and feeling that the quantity might be correct this reporter returned back to Moreh Trade Centre.

however, on opening the bag, it was found that except for a few dry fishes added later, the whole load turned out to be small fermented fishes.

This is fully convincing that Namphalong market has become a place of charlatans, tricksters, frauds and undue profit-makers.

Talking to The Sangai Express, some traders interested in the cross-border trade said that absence of price tags in all kinds of goods sold in Namphalong market enabled the shopkeepers to hike prices according to their own sweet will.

This practice of duping customers can be considerably mitigated if it is made mandatory to attach price tags to each and every commodity.

However, there has been no initiative from the side of the Government to put in place such a binding regulatory mechanism, they said.

It is also essential to determine the equivalent of weight of one choi in terms of kilogram.

As the Indian customers could not read the letters embossed in the weights used in weighing fish in Namphalong market, they are vulnerable to all kinds of trickey and fraudulence.

On the other hand, efforts were being made to organise a joint meet of buyers and sellers of India and Myanmar at Tamu.

The meet may deliberate on making it mandatory to print date of manufacture, expiry date and retail price on each and every commodity including food items, conveyed a source.

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