Urgent calls have been made for the effective and efficient monitoring of the exorbitant increase in prices of some goods at the supermarkets by the Fijian Competition and Consumer Commission.
Many people sent in questions to fijivillage Straight Talk With Vijay Narayan when Acting Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Professor Biman Prasad appeared on the show.
Serious issues were raised about the FCCC being in a reactive mode a lot.
People are saying prices of items are rising on a weekly basis - and mainly just after the inspections.
They notice that the prices come down when it is raised as an issue.
They have asked Professor Prasad what is being done about this and what will be done.
Professor Prasad says the FCCC has reviewed 232 products after the 2022-2023 National Budget where 40 percent of these prices saw price reductions while prices of some items went up for example the increase in the price of chickens.
Professor Prasad says some supermarkets were adding 15 percent to the 9 percent after the budget announcement and that is when FCCC and the Fiji Revenue and Customs Service were on the ground as they did not want to tolerate the unscrupulous behaviour from businesses. He says there were other measures in the budget apart from the mitigation package and the government had reduced duty on meat products such as chicken portion, chicken wings, beef, pork, prices of all canned fish have reduced since August.
He says there was a request for an increase in port charges which FCCC has not done and they have made sure that there is no increase in the charges as it will add further price increases particularly on those items that are imported.
People also raised the issue that they were told to tighten the belt by the government as we could not continue to borrow excessively and we need to live within our means.
People are asking questions on people in statutory companies or institutions funded by the taxpayers being paid exorbitant salaries, and even more than the Prime Minister.
They have asked if this is being reviewed and the effective performance of people like the FCCC CEO is being done.
Professor Prasad says the review is underway as the Higher Salaries Commission was disbanded by the previous government.
He says the FCCC CEO comes under the Minister for Trade and he trusts that the review and appropriate assessments will be done.
He further says that as the Minister of Finance, people had expectations and awaited change and as a government they realise that people were still transitioning from the suffering during COVID-19.
Professor Prasad says they immediately deployed funds to ensure that they can help people and people have realised how much things have changed for the better.
He adds that there is a need to review the Consumer Price Index which has remained the same since 2008 and the Fiji Bureau of Statistics has started with re-basing the CPI basket.
You can watch the full Straight Talk interview on our website, fijivillage.
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