Reducing prices is very important to us; essential goods should not be sold with unreasonably high pricing margins-this impacts our population, our people, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili stated at the Government meeting held on Monday.
According to the Prime Minister, markups have grown by 70, 80, and even 100% in some cases, and it is unacceptable.
“It involves an instruction issued by me a couple of weeks ago concerning food and fuel prices. More than one meeting has been dedicated to this issue. The Ministers of Economy, Finance, and Agriculture have been actively involved. The leadership of the Competition Agency is fully engaged in this process. Numerous meetings have been held with both importers and large chains, retail business owners. I would like to explain to our people and public once again that the picture we see is as follows. The information that I communicated is that, overall, markups have grown by 70, 80, and even 100% in some cases, and it is unacceptable. Consequently, we have now started active work toward regulating this issue. We have also heard explanations from importers claiming that this 70-80% does not include their profits, but instead depends to some extent on the rules set by retailers, large chains, and we have serious, legitimate questions concerning these rules. These rules have not been tried and tested in EU or European countries, or in the Western world in general,” the Prime Minister said.
In addition, according to Irakli Garibashvili, the Ministry of Economy, acting on his instructions, will develop a relevant bill in relation to the EU Directive on Fair Trade. According to the Prime Minister, pricing margins will be set for importers, and particular rules will be defined for retailers.
