The Ministry of Commerce and Industry Warns Against hiking prices of foodstuffs and other commodities.
Friday, July 16th, 2010The Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoCI) will take strict legal procedures against anyone caught manipulating or hiking prices of foodstuffs and other commodities during or before the holy month of Ramadan, Al-Anba daily quoted Undersecretary Rashed Al-Tabtabaei as saying.
Al-Tabtabaei said this during a meeting with Assistant Undersecretary for Commercial Affairs Ali Al-Baghli and supervisors of inspection departments in all governorates.
He stressed the need to apply all procedures and bylaws to prevent greedy merchants from hiking prices of stuffs and asked all supervisors to stick to ministry’s plan and strategy in this regard. He also asked their views about how to control the market and curb the unjustifiable hike in prices.
Al-Tabtabaei emphasized that the ministry will refer all violators to authorities. Meanwhile, Director of Charitable Societies Department at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor Nasser Al-Ammar announced at a press conference that cash donations will be accepted during Ramadan.
He mentioned that 10 charitable societies and 150 subcommittees have been authorized to collect cash donations during Ramadan and that they have to collect cash receipt books from the ministry. Al-Ammar called on all donors to ask for receipt of their donations as it will enable the ministry audit the process accurately as well as prevent violations.
He said charitable societies can collect donations through cheques or through K-Net system and added that the department so far did not receive any instructions from the Awqaf Ministry about collecting donations inside mosques.
Officials at the service centers of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoCI) are called upon to further facilitate the citizens’ procedures and finalize them as quickly as possible according to regulations, Undersecretary of MoCI Rashid Al-Tabtabaei said here Thursday.
Al-Tabtabaei said in a statement today following a field visit to a number of the ministry’s monitoring bureaus and service centers that the ministry would spare no effort on carrying out its duties in protecting consumers against any price manipulation or commercial cheating.
Al-Tabtabaei’s field visit aimed at having a first-hand knowledge of the work of monitoring bureaus and service centers as well as checking the workings and requirements of every bureau separately whether they are technical or administrative.
Farmers and importers have been paying a high price for the failure of the concerned officials to take decisive steps on the proposed relocation of the vegetable market from Shuwaikh to Sulaibiya, reports Al-Seyassah daily quoting sources.
Sources revealed some farmers, who had previously transferred their stalls to Sulaibiya, returned to Shuwaikh as nobody patronized them in the new location. Sources said the farmers have defied the directive of Kuwait Municipality officials, who asked them to transfer to Sulaibiya.