With frequent problems in food shortages, Venezuela has become used to getting by without some basic commodities in life. No regular supply of milk, coffee, eggs and the like, but even toilet paper?

This has become the latest crisis in the Latin American country which has a scarcity index of 21 percent, meaning out of 100 products, 21 are not readily available in stores.

Retailers have no more toilet paper in stocks which makes each new delivery a reason for mad rush to the supermarkets by consumers. The crisis is that serious that the government is now compelled to purchase order 50 million rolls just to pacify inconsolable shoppers.

One lady interviewed by the Associated Press confided that she had been raiding the main city's stores for two weeks, only to fall in line in a shop in Caracas that had a fresh delivery that day. Another 70-year old shopper, meanwhile, told Sky News, "Even at my age, I've never seen this."

Some economists are partly blaming the government's price control scheme for the crisis. During the time of the late President Hugo Chavez, he ordered prices of basic goods to be under state control to make them affordable to the poorest in society.

"State-controlled prices - prices that are set below market-clearing price - always result in shortagesJ," John Hopskin University economics professor Steve Hanke told the Associated Press. "The shortage problem will only get worse, as it did over the years in the Soviet Union," he added.

Other government officials, meanwhile, are each putting the blame on different factors. The Associated Press reported that Socialist President Nicolás Maduro, successor of former president Chavez, attributed the problem to "anti-government forces."

Commerce Minister Alejandro Fleming, on the other hand, blamed the media for creating the impression of "excessive demand" for toilet paper to cause panic and hoarding among citizens. But despite the finger pointing, Fleming is reportedly bent on rectifying the situation by making a drastic action.

He will make possible the delivery of 50 million rolls of toilet paper. "We are going to saturate the market so that our people calm down," he said.