The Consumer Council of Fiji is urging traders to uphold business ethics and do the right thing by not increasing the price of goods from the old stock following the 2016 National Budget announcement last Friday.
Council’s CEO Premila Kumar says telephone lines have been abuzz since this morning with consumers expressing concern over what they describe as overnight price hikes of certain goods particularly, cigarettes, alcohol and sugar‑sweetened drinks following the budget announcement.
Kumar says a public circular released by the Fiji Revenue and Customs Authority states that the duty rates and other changes relating to the Customs Tariff Act shall apply to goods arriving for the first time in Fiji by ship or aircraft, after midnight, 5th November, 2015.
The mentioned time and date also applies to goods relating to changes to the Excise Act.
The price increases on cigarettes and alcohol by 18.5% comes into effect when there is delivery of new stock after the 2016 budget announcement.
Kumar says if retailers are selling these products from their old stock then it must be sold at the old retail price because the duty on old stock was already paid before the budget announcement.
When questioned on the issue, Finance Minister, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says they have proposed new laws to deal with these issues.
Sayed-Khaiyum stresses that duties and taxes only come into effect after the new stocks come in.
He hopes the opposition supports the proposed law to protect the consumers of the country.
Meanwhile, the 9% Value Added Tax comes into effect from 1st January 2016.
