Cabinet meets next Tuesday to decide essential prices

The Cabinet will meet next Tuesday to decide on the prices of essential goods that will be exempted from VAT, Industry and Commerce Minister Rishad Bathiudeen told Parliament yesterday.

During his address, the Minister was insistent that misconceptions on VAT has to be rooted out as people believe the price increases are a result of the new tax rather than the costs being driven up by middlemen. 

“I must highlight the fact that though the VAT component is applied to a certain commodities, no VAT component is applied for essential food items such as white rice, sugar, dhal, big onion, potato, red onion, milk powder, wheat flour, dried chilies, green gram, chick peas, canned fish, sprats, chicken and pharmaceuticals.” 

He stressed that the present pricing formula implemented by the Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) must be republished and proper monitoring activity should be established district-wise in order to raid errant traders. The Commerce Ministry would also immediately re-gazzete the Maximum Retail price (MRP) of the essential items and publicise the maximum prices via electronic and print media to the public and strengthen the market raiding mechanism. 

The Cabinet of Ministers will meet next Tuesday, 12 July, to decide on the prices of essential goods, he reiterated. Subsequently, twice a week prices will be telecast through print media and electronic media. 

If maximum retail prices are not maintained in the market, any aggrieved consumers can lodge a complaint to the Consumer Affairs Authority which is established in every district. A special hotline number ‘1977’ has been introduced to lodge consumer complaints.

The Government has decided to subsidise essential food items such as sugar, dhal, big onion, sprats, dried chilies, potato, canned fish, and milk powder with immediate effect if necessary. 

“This week we discussed strengthening the capacity of the Consumer Affairs Authority by employing 100 additional graduates. Also a price control mechanism would be supervised district-wise by senior ministers to ensure MRP will prevail. Another measure we have decided on to ensure controlled price is to the increase the number of Sathosa outlets in the country. At the moment 319 Sathosa outlets are operating and provide significant support to consumers. We intend to increase it up to 500 outlets by the end of this year.”

 The Prime Minister has advised to convene the Cabinet Sub Committee on Cost of Living every Tuesday and to submit a weekly report on cost of living along with its recommendations, Bathiudeen said.