Hoarding and black marketing is a serious problem faced by the consumer. When any essential commodity is not made available in the open market and stocks are intentionally held back by dealers, it is known as hoarding. Its purpose is to create artificial scarcity to push up the prices. Black marketing is the illegal business of buying and selling hoarded goods, secretly at a higher price. Many times, product prices are raised by temporarily reducing the supply of their goods in the market, thus causing artificial scarcity. These practices are usually adopted, just before the government announces the budget.
