FCCC conducts pre-budget surveys to prevent unethical price hikes

The Fijian Competition and Consumer Commission is currently carrying out pre-budget surveys to determine the baseline prices before the budget announcement.

FCCC has highlighted this in response to questions by fijivillage News on what will be done to ensure that consumers are not deceived by some retailers after the budget announcement as some outlets had increased prices of items such as chicken by 15 percent following the increase in VAT from 9 percent to 15 percent.

The Commission says data from pre-budget surveys will be used to determine whether traders are exorbitantly increasing the prices of non-price-controlled items to the point of unconscionable conduct, requiring enforcement action.

When questioned on what they are doing to ensure that retailers are not engaging in price hikes or unethically pricing products before the budget, the FCCC says their team is analysing the data from market surveys on non-price-controlled items to determine baseline prices to.

They say this is being done to determine if there are cases of unethical pricing.

FCCC is also requesting that any consumer to report the case to them if they encounter a case. Meanwhile, FCCC has confirmed that their market inquiry on supermarkets was initiated on the 1st of May and they are looking at completing this by the first quarter of the new financial year.

They say as they do not want to prejudice the inquiry, they cannot comment on whether anyone has been questioned for alleged unscrupulous behaviour.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Professor Biman Prasad will deliver the 2024/2025 National Budget at 10am tomorrow.