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.
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