The government intends to put in place a permanent expansion of the price control grocery list after the expanded list announced by Prime Minister Philip Davis in October expires in April, Minister of Economic Affairs Michael Halkitis said yesterday.

In a national address on October 11, the prime minister said, "These items are being added for at least a six-month period, at which point we will review and evaluate the impact on businesses and consumers."

His announcement became hugely controversial as it had taken grocers and other industry players off guard.

When asked for an update on the matter yesterday, Halkitis said, "That expanded list goes until April 17.

"Between now and then, we will seek to come to some meeting of the minds on a permanent expanded list, a permanent solution.

"We've been discussing the matter and we've been accessing some of the impacts it's been having, some meetings. Some of our people have been gauging the impact of what's been happening."

After Davis announced the expanded price control list, the government came under fire from grocers on both the retail and wholesale side of the business who argued that the move by the government would be detrimental to the industry, especially the smaller grocers.

The government was also criticized for coming up with the new margins in the absence of any consultation.

In December, a full two months after the prime minister's announcement, The Nassau Guardian confirmed that grocers who are members of the Retailer Grocers Association had failed to change their prices in line with the updated gazetted list.

But Halkitis had insisted in December that price control inspectors were visiting stores and had confirmed that prices were adjusted.

At a press conference at the Office of the Prime Minister yesterday, Halkitis acknowledged what grocers had warned about — that small business people in particular would be most impacted by the changes.

He said, "[We are] getting some feedback, particularly from some small operators, and trying to figure out if you're going forward what is the best formula going forward because, frankly, what we've found is that it tends to impact the smaller retailers more than the bigger retailers, so going forward, we have to figure out a way, so whatever we do we balance that out.

"But we think it was the right course of action given the inflationary environment at the time and given that the government had already done things like reduce duty on food items in the last budget, intervened with shippers to get shipping rates down, and prices remain stubbornly high, so in the government's view, you have to do something to give some immediate relief, albeit temporary in that case."

Halkitis said the government continues to train more price control inspectors.

"We had four days of training. They're actually out in the field," he said.

"I had said that during the period of the expanded price control regulations, what we were doing is making sure that we put more people in the department, training them, [to] make sure that, you know, when you revert to the old margins or when you come up with new solutions, that we have enough people properly trained, properly equipped to go out there and do the inspections," he said.

"It's temporary; we use that temporary period to beef up resources, so that when we go back, we can make sure that we enforce."

He said the government intends to speak to the industry this time before making permanent changes.

"Going forward, we don't look for combative relationship with the industry," Halkitis said.

"We would very much like to move to a more collaborative working relationship."

In October, the government had gazetted a 15 percent maximum markup for wholesalers and a 25 percent maximum markup for retailers on certain categories of items.

The items on the government's final amended price control list are the same categories of items gazetted in October, which triggered major pushback from grocers.

In November, Halkitis announced the government agreed to an additional five percent maximum markup on perishable items for retailers on New Providence and Grand Bahama.

The government also agreed to an additional five percent markup on non-perishable items, and an additional 10 percent on perishables for the Family Islands than what was originally gazetted.

The government had originally proposed the same markup for New Providence, Grand Bahama and the Family Islands, but conceded that Family Island businesses face higher operating costs.

The retail markup for non-perishables on New Providence and Grand Bahama remained unchanged from what was announced in October.

The government did not make adjustments to the 15 percent maximum markup announced in October for wholesalers for all price-controlled categories.

The retailers had presented a proposal outlining what they could live with, but in December, they had said up to that point the government had not responded.

The post Govt planning permanent expansion to price control list appeared first on The Nassau Guardian.

The post Govt planning permanent expansion to price control list appeared first on The Nassau Guardian.

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