ICCC begins second phase of price surveillance

By NATHAN WOTI
THE Independent Consumer and Competition Commission (ICCC) has started the second phase of its price surveillance operation in Port Moresby before conducting the same in other centres.
ICCC chief commissioner Paulus Ain said the operation was to ensure that all shops and businesses met the regulated pricing standard and did not increase prices to more than 10 per cent across the board.
“We understand that most shops, especially in the rural communities, are taking advantage of inflation and are increasing food prices without informing us,” he said.
“Although prices are impacted by the global demand and supply trend, because PNG is a price-taker economy, we also have to be sensible in how we price goods for our people, and not overcharge them.”
He warned that shops and wholesalers breaching regulations would be charged K10,000 for “price debugging”.
Ain said since 2022, more than 300,000 businesses had been brought to court to pay fines for debugging prices. Twenty cases are pending in court.
“We have been noticing that some prices increased significantly while others dropped. We have our own records of who applied for or submitted their price changes request, and we will cross-check the details.”
Meanwhile, Ain explained that shops and supermarkets which suffered damage during the Jan 10 civil unrest had been given the green light to price their goods in order to recover their loss.
The ICCC is encouraging retailers and wholesalers that have not yet applied for any price increase of more than 10 per cent on the listed goods to submit their application before inspectors visit their shops.