ICCC, update fuel prices at points-of-sale

 I REFER to the article, “Fuel prices to drop further, commission says” (Feb 9). 

I understand and note that the Independent Consumer and Competition Commission (ICCC) is mandated to promote competition and fair trading, the regulation of prices for certain goods and services, and the protection of consumers’ interest. 

I notice that the ICCC (and commissioner) regularly make public announcements of price fluctuations determined by market forces, particularly by international factors. 

In that sense we can say that PNG is a price taker. 

Firstly, I acknowledge this valuable service of informing the PNG public of general fluctuations of fuel prices to consumers. 

However, I believe that the ICCC’s programme of policing and enforcing price decreases need to be heightened and improved so that there is effective control on fuel prices and be made user-friendly to the consumer. 

There is always gross negligence and ignorance on the reflection on actual decreased pricing by many fuel service stations after ICCC announcements. 

One suggestion to amend this ill-practice is to install price notice boards likened to banks for announcements of applicable exchange rates. 

With such systems, your enforcement division can update these price boards whenever necessary as these service stations are points of sale. 

This would also provide the ICCC with on-the-spot monitoring and updating on the implementation of decrease pricing, thereby improving the level of compliance on this issue of unfair business practices.

It will instil bite into these regular public announcements and not be seen as just another media burp. 

Bikpela Wara Siviri, Via email