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Tonight merchants, wholesalers and retailers are bracing for losses while consumers are hoping for some relief from empty pocket syndrome after the introduction of a Statutory Instrument which imposes new price control regulations on basic food and household items.
Today's Cabinet brief confirms the introduction of the price controls and says, quote, "this is a temporary measure designed to alleviate the cost of living. The government's intention is to bring relief to the most disadvantaged members in our country who have been bearing a disproportionate burden caused by the dramatic increases in the cost of basic products. This policy measure has become necessary because of widespread price gouging. Despite the reduction in costs of goods internationally, there has been very little price reduction on many imported goods." End quote.
And while shoppers know all about that price gouging - business owners say they're only asking for a fair margin that lets them make an operating profit.
The new law fixes the maximum markup for basic foodstuffs and goods at 15% for wholesale and 25% for retail. Our experience tells us that these margins are usually at 30% for wholesale and about 50- 60% for retail.
And that's why tonight the Chamber of Commerce is asking government to delay the introduction of the new measures. They claim that they were not consulted. President of the BCCI Marcelo Blake had a Zoom press briefing today explaining the Chamber's position:
Marcelo Blake, BCCI President
"We did have one meeting with the supplies control along with the CEO from the ministry of human development and its subsequent to that meeting that we actually released the paper and also wrote to the prime minister. Since then we have not had any conversation not to the lack of trying. I can tell you our chief policy analyst has been trying to reach out to the controller of supplies without much success in getting them to a conversation or even just to provide an update on exactly where we are in the conversation."
"Well for us at the end of the day we continue to advocate on behalf of our members we definitely will not speak for BCA but we appreciate that we are all in the same boat together because we do have members who are on the retail end that will be impacted by this and so out of our conversation yesterday it was in fact that we are looking at a request from the government to see how best we could have this delayed somewhat not a long but a short delay in order for us to then be able to get the questions answered in regards to process and documentation and then to ensure that we would be able to communicate that back to our members. But in the absence of that we definitely welcome the controller of supplies to be able to address out membership and provide us with the guidance as to what to expect in the process of the roll out not only of the SI 87 but also 88 because obviously its important for us to also understand and appreciate how that will be handled and what members can expect when an officer shows up at their establishment."
While Blake hopes that GOB will consider their request and delay the SI until proper dialogue can take place, he says that the public needs to understand how pricing works and the cost of acquisitions before an item is placed on the shelf. He says too many store owners are being accused of price gouging when in reality the cost of importing goods into Belize is steeper than it may seem.
Marcelo Blake, BCCI President
"And see the thing is at the end of the day what's been happening is that theres a picture being painted that in fact businesses are taking advantage when that is not the case. At the end of the day your cost of acquiring a product is dependent on your purchasing it from meaning overseas we are heavily an import country so whoever we are buying it from the supplier, the manufacturer has a price that set and then you have to add on a freight or insurance you land it here in belize and then you have the duties and that's part of our conversation that has not been had well we have not had the opportunity to have it with the government looking at tax reform, meaningful tax reform because at the end of the day that is one way that the government can partner to contribute in reducing the price of those goods."
Today's Cabinet brief says the new controls apply, quote, "to goods imported recently, after a reduction in acquisition costs."
