These included his commercial affairs deputy, Hassan Younes Sinaki, the head of Consumers and Producers Protection Organization, Mahmoud Navvabi, and the head of ‘Tazirat’ Organization (a judiciary-affiliated ombudsman dealing with trading offenses), Jamal Ansari. According to Shariatmadari, the taskforce will help maintain balance in the market by supervising over imported commodities or ones produced using imported raw material purchased using subsidized foreign exchange rates and prevent disruptive activities such as hoarding and stashing, IRNA reported. The taskforce started work on Saturday. The minister also called on others, including the abovementioned bodies, public organizations, producers’ unions and associations, and businesspeople, to help realize the above objectives. President of Chamber of Guilds Ali Fazeli recently said withholding products from the market is a punishable offense, explaining that the term “hoarding” is not suitable for describing the current withholding of products by certain producers and distributors. Fazeli attributed the ongoing practice of stashing–different from hoarding in that the latter refers to the refusal to sell a product for it to become more expensive–to market uncertainty and the fear of not being able to replace the sold goods, according to Financial Tribune.