Africa-Press – Mauritius. The Ministry of Commerce and Consumer Protection organised, today, a half-day workshop for the validation of the Price Observatory Committee’s (POC) Strategic Plan, at the Victoria House in Port Louis.
The Minister of Labour, Human Resource Development and Training, Mr Soodesh Satkam Callichurn; the newly appointed Minister of Commerce and Consumer Protection, Dr (Mrs) Marie Christiane Dorine Chukowry; the Chairperson of the POC, Dr (Mrs) Rooba Yanembal Moorghen; and other personalities were present.
In his address, Minister Callichurn congratulated Minister Chukowry for her new responsibilities as Minister of Commerce and Consumer Protection, a post he held for over two years.
“I can proudly state that during my term at this Ministry, we have been able to achieve a lot in terms of policies to better regulate the trade sector in Mauritius and above all ensure the best possible protection for consumers,” he emphasised. The Minister highlighted that today’s workshop for the validation of the POC Strategic Plan 2023-2026 is the result of months of consultations.
He also dwelt on some initiatives taken in the sector of Commerce and Consumer Protection, notably: offering subsidies on seven categories of products, that is, some 371 brands, namely pulses, canned tomatoes, canned fish, edible oil, milk powder, margarine and cheese in July 2021 and; introducing a Maximum Mark-Up system on 12 categories of products, including the seven categories of products above, in July 2022.
Moreover, the Minister stressed that in budget 2022-2023, a subsidy of Rs 500 million was granted to the State Trading Corporation (STC) for the purchase and commercialisation of edible oil, milk powder, pulses, and Basmati rice. Subsidies on Long Grain White Rice, flour, Liquefied Petroleum Gas, and bread (‘pain maison’) were also maintained, he added.
Mr Callichurn observed that another important measure recently implemented is the introduction of the Regressive Mark-Up ranging from 26% to 35% on eight categories of medicines and a flat 30% on three categories of non-classified pharmaceutical products.
He also referred to the successful negotiation concluded with India for the exemption from the ban on the export of rice for a volume of 14,000 Metric Tons (MT), roughly equivalent to two-thirds of Mauritius’s annual consumption and, around 1500 MT, which was already awarded to an Indian supplier and was lying at Mundra Port in Gujarat, and has now been cleared for shipment.
Minister Callichurn moreover thanked all Officers of the Ministry of Commerce and Consumer Protection and stakeholders with whom he worked during his time in post, including the STC and the team of the Competition Commission of Mauritius (CCM) for their good work in ensuring a fair playing field for all players in the market and protecting consumers from abuse.
For her part, Dr Chukowry emphasised that a constantly improving consumer protection system with all the necessary mechanisms and consumer-friendly tools remains high on the agenda of her Ministry and the Government.
It is in this context that the initiative to revamp the POC was taken so as to ensure that it serves its initial purpose in the face of a continuously evolving trade landscape, she added.
Mauritius, Minister Chukowry underscored, is highly dependent on imports and as such, has been deeply affected by the negative impacts of the two back-to-back shocks of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Ukraine-Russia War.
“In addition, impacts of climate change, imported inflation, energy prices, freight costs, and international market forces, amongst others, cannot be ignored,” she stated.
On this score, Dr Chukowry outlined that at that time, the Ministry left no stone unturned to devise policies to protect consumers including the launching of the MOPRI Mobile App in May 2023 which is accessible to everyone and gives an overview of the retail prices of some 100 commodities and help customers compare prices before purchase; and the implementation of the necessary legal framework to make it compulsory for supermarkets to be engaged on the MOPRI platform.
All these initiatives, the Minister pointed out, bear testimony to the Government’s determination to strive by the side of the population against the difficult global economic situation and the soaring prices that are beyond their control.
As for the Chairperson of the POC, she highlighted that the overall objective of the Observatory is to bring transparency in the evolution of prices of a hundred selected commodities comprising more than 450 widely consumed products so as to enable consumers to make more informed and rationale buying decisions.
Dr Moorghen underscored that the Strategic Plan will help to create an enabling environment to be more citizen centric in the provision of real time information on retail prices, dissemination of research policy, and to promote research based not only in the local context but also based on best international practice of price observatories worldwide.
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