Persons found hoarding food items, leading to artificially introduced shortages and price increases would soon be subject to prosecution and government is also working on additional measures to address food price increases.
Cabinet Secretary Dr Roger Luncheon said yesterday that government was continuing its own examination of additional steps to address food price increases and immediately decided that further to the recent zero-rating of flour, to also zero-rate wheat.
Luncheon said Cabinet’s consultations on the impact of the price increases have stressed the agricultural “grow more food” drive and direct interventions to stabilise food prices as principal among coping mechanisms coming out of consultations.
He said attention was also being given to problems in the distribution system and particularly trading in the retail sector led to a decision to draft legislation on unscrupulous behaviour by middlemen and retailers. He revealed that hoarding was a prime example of behaviour leading to artificially introduced shortages and price increases and added that Cabinet has resolved to finalise discussions on additional measures.
