The government will take immediate action on the businesses that have not passed on the duty reductions for items announced in recent national budgets.
Permanent Secretary for Finance, Filimoni Waqabaca said the businesses will have to pay the full duty if they did not reduce prices as announced and they will also face high penalties.
Waqabaca said the committee comprising of the Finance Ministry, Fiji Revenue and Customs Authority and the Ministry of Industry and Trade will meet to discuss all the options.
He said the checks and assessments have already started.
During a survey, the Consumer Council found no significant drop in smart phone prices despite the zero duty announced in the 2013 national budget.
A comparison of April 2013 prices of 87 smart phones with November 2012 prices found 14.9% had dropped in price, 13.8% increased in price while 71.3% had no change in prices.
Council CEO, Premila Kumar said some 2010 model smart phones are still being sold at high prices despite new phones entering the market regularly.
The council also said another example where duty reduction has had no positive impact is on vehicles under 2500cc where government reduced duty in 2011 from 32% to 15%.
Story by: Vijay Narayan
