fijivillage Straight Talk with Vijay Narayan with FCCC CEO Joel Abraham

There is a need to look at whether the existing FCCC legislation is sufficient as it does not specifically have any provisions that says price gouging is illegal.

This has been highlighted by FCCC CEO Joel Abraham on fijivillage Straight Talk with Vijay Narayan, who says there are general provisions under which they can take the matter to court, but specifically, it does not say that businesses cannot price gouge.

He says they have managed to get support from the Asian Development Bank, and the Ministry of Commerce as well, and a professor who worked on the Australian law is working with Fiji’s Chief Legal Counsel to look at all the amendments that are required to modernize the FCCC Act.

He says they are almost on the verge of completing this work and are looking at the end of this financial year to provide some sort of indication to the Government on the areas they want amendments in.

Abraham says they are quite optimistic that in the next financial year, the Government will look at it as he says the dedication he has seen from Acting Prime Minister Manoa Kamikamica on these matters shows that the Government is really interested and serious about consumer protection in Fiji.

The FCCC is currently looking at the price of items that currently enjoy duty protection to assess whether those tax concessions and the benefits are indeed passed on to consumers.

This has been confirmed by FCCC CEO Joel Abraham on fijivillage Straight Talk with Vijay Narayan while responding to comments by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance to wholesalers enjoying duty protection here in Fiji to step up their game or further action will be taken.

Abraham says they are currently in the process of getting the list from the Minister of Finance and the Fiji Revenue and Customs Service to assess what these items are and for how long these protections have been available where some of these protections have been available for quite some time.

He says they want to see whether these industries need continuous protection or whether it's time for market situations to change.

When questioned about how soon this will be done, Abraham says they had initially looked at a six-month timeline, but unfortunately, they had traders saying that it is their legal right to consult with their lawyers and not everybody was willing to provide information.

The CEO says a lot of them have provided the information they issued the notice to furnish the information under the provisions of Section 119 of the FCCC Act that allows them to requisition information.

He says failure to submit such information would be a breach of the Act so wherever they see that the notice has not been complied with, they are assessing where the charges need to be filed.

When questioned on how he is dealing with exorbitant price rises, Abraham says the toughest action would be to regulate and put them under price control but that is the last resort.

Following serious allegations of price manipulation by banks from people who have lost their property due to bank foreclosure, the FCCC will be launching an inquiry into the financial services sector.

While confirming this on fijivillage Straight Talk with Vijay Narayan, FCCC CEO Joel Abraham says they have received about 5 complaints about this.

While highlighting one of the complaints, Abraham says a man took out a loan of $100,000 from a commercial bank for a piece of land that the bank has valued at $150,000 but the man has lost his job and was unable to pay the loan.

The CEO says the bank came into foreclose and did another valuation where the value dropped to $85,000 and they were trying to sell it to somebody.

He asks how can the valuation drop when we all know land is an appreciating asset.

Abraham says given that they strongly condemn any of this predatory practice, they will open up a platform and will ask all Fijians who have lost their property due to foreclosure in the last 5 years and feel there have been some issues, to come to the FCCC who will look into it.

The CEO says this will be a report on its own and they are hoping to then support the Office of the Financial Ombudsman by providing them this market information to say this is what they think the state of the market has been when it is come to foreclosure.

A warning is being issued to supermarkets and traders regarding unethical practices where FCCC CEO Joel Abraham has told traders that if they are thinking of doing something or if they have been engaged in something, now is the time to stop.

While speaking on fijivillage Straight Talk with Vijay Narayan, Abraham says they have seen that unethical pricing practices have lowered and have also seen some very positive changes in the market in terms of pricing.

As the FCCC is undertaking a market inquiry, Abraham says they are trying to trace the supply chain of the entire grocery sector and that will allow them to basically understand where the unethical practices arise.

He says in the past 8 to 10 months, they have found that some traders have tried to play some games with pricing where all of this has been for non-price control items.

The CEO says they have seen changes in prices of non-price control items and are drilling down to see what was the cause of the change.

While stressing the need to take receipts from traders, Abraham says this ensures that if the business is charging any taxes, then those taxes are then adequately remitted to the State.

Abraham also says they will look at the efficacy of government policies of price control because price control as applied by the FCCC is currently a result of government policy.