HEAD of the Presidential Secretariat (HPS) Dr. Roger Luncheon remarked, yesterday, that the fluctuation in prices of basic goods and food items during the festive season is not uncommon.
He told his weekly post-Cabinet media briefing that it is often the result of forces other than the ordinary supply and demand but Government intervention could force prices down.
Speaking at Office of the President, Shiv Chanderpaul Drive, Georgetown, Luncheon said the current experience of Guyanese consumers is no exception.
“Government has resolved to respond firmly and in a principled way. In that sense, public awareness, by the Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Commerce and the Guyana Revenue Authority has been brought into play,” he said.
Referring to the creation of mobile units to sell sugar and rice, last weekend, Luncheon said they were state interventions to protect prices in the marketplace.
He said those actions also entailed the investigation and identification of the unscrupulous retail sector operatives.
“The intention remains to control the price increases and ensure that shortages are not artificially created to enrich those retail sector operatives who would stoop to such levels.”
Luncheon said there is no reason for the increases that have been demanded, seasonal or sector-wise. “We are assured that supplies are more than adequate…we are assured that there are no bottlenecks in the supply of these commodities. The obvious impression, then, is that there is quite a bit of hoarding by unscrupulous merchants who, even for one or two weeks, elevation in prices will make a tidy Christmas gift to themselves.”
He said, from that perspective, putting, at the level of the community, significant supplies outside of the regular commercial retail sector, forces the merchants either to continue hoarding and lose sales or stop the unscrupulous practice.