With 18 murders since the start of the year you might think that crime reduction was a police priority, but not so, right now police teams are dispatched countrywide not to control crime, but to control prices. In Belize City over the past two days, over 200 businesses have been checked by police teams to make sure they are complying with price controls. The checks have become necessary after taxes were implemented on February 1st and the rolled back three days later. One of the teams we caught up with is led by Inspector Dennis Arnold and he told us how it's been going.
Inspector Dennis Arnold, Price Control Patrol
"We are just here to ensure that the taxes has been rolled back and whatever raise the merchants they raised should not be passed on to the consumer. We encounter slight problems with most of the businesses, the Chinese business merchants, with the soft drinks and beers. They are saying that they have bought stocks from Bowen and what happened now they have to drop their price. They were selling for $2.75 and right now they have to drop it back to $2.25, and if you don't bring pint then you pay $2.50. They are saying they are at a lost right, they will not gain anything from the fluctuation of the prices, that is they explained to us. But we are here basically like the watchdog to ensure that these taxes do not affect consumers. What we are saying to them, is that we were made to understand, that Bowen would have reimbursed the grocers for the extras."
Jules Vasquez,
You are reinforcing the let's say $1.50 on a bottle of soft drink. You are enforcing that saying that...
Inspector Dennis Arnold,
"We are enforcing what is on the control items right and soft drinks isn't one of the controlled items. But beer is one of the controlled items."
Jules Vasquez,
What should I do if I feel I'm being taken advantage of by a shopkeeper?
Inspector Dennis Arnold,
"Well you can go and report it to Raccoon Street and see Mrs. Leslie. We are the enforcers, then we would ensure that. They say that entrapment is illegal, that it is against the law right, but what we would do is send someone to verify. When I say to verify, to go and buy a soft drink, or a beer for that matter, and see if the price is heist."
There are price controls for flour, rice, beans, beer and other items. If you have a complaint you can take it to Assistant Commissioner Maureen Leslie at the Raccoon Street Station. As an interesting aside, we note that the Price Control Patrol found the highest prices at one very powerful and well connected supermarket but we are told that managers there explained away their variance from controlled prices by showing higher costs of operation and packaging.