As we await the 2014 National Budget announcement this morning, the Consumer Council of Fiji is urging the government to put in place strict price monitoring systems particularly on duty reduced items announced during the national budget to reflect lower prices at retail level.
CEO Premila Kumar said the Commerce Commission with the Fiji Revenue and Customs Authority should intervene and implement price control on products that have had duty reductions but traders fail to reduce the prices.
During a survey, the council found no significant drop in smart phone prices despite the zero-duty announced in this year’s 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.
The Council 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%.
According to the consumer council the Fijian customers have not benefitted from the duty reduction and government’s policy intent is not achieved.
Commerce Commission Chairman Dr Mahendra Reddy said the Commission can only look into items that are under the price control order.
People are hoping for price reductions in the 2014 National Budget announcement.
They hope next year’s budget will be a people’s budget.
Stay with us for all the updates of the 2014 National Budget announcement.
Story by: Akuila Cama
