Measures to help consumers

Dharma Sri ABEYRATNE

THE Trade, Marketing Development, Co-operative and Consumer Services Ministry has taken steps to bring down the prices of rice, big onions and cement aiming to reduce the burden to the consumers, said Minister of Trade, Marketing Development, Co-operative and Consumer Services Bandula Goonawardena yesterday.

Accordingly, the Government has decided to offer 100 per cent tax relief to rice importers to import 75,000 metric tonnes of rice from the world market. Two kinds of rice called Irri 6 and Bonni Samba will be imported without taxes.

According to the agreement between the Ministry and the importers, the maximum price of a kilogram of Irri 06 will be Rs. 40 while Bonni Samba will cost Rs. 45.

“Only importers who will sign the agreement with the Ministry will be given this tax relief until November,” the Minister said.

The import tax of Rs. 20 imposed on a kilogramme of big onions has been reduced to Rs. 5 since the price of big onions in the open market has increased suddenly. This measure will help traders import big onions to cater the demand, the Minister said.

“At the same time it is the duty of the Government to safeguard big onion cultivators. Therefore the Government has declared a Rs. 30 guaranteed price”, the Minister said. On the cement shortage the Minister said that importers and producers have agreed to fulfil the demand by Monday.

The maximum retail price of a bag of cement is Rs. 692. “There is a scarcity of cement all over the world since there is a growing demand for cement in China and India. The Government will not allow an increase in the price of cement by a cent”, the Minister stressed.

Consumers can inform the Ministry regarding retailers who sell cement at a high price since there have been instances where a bag of cement is sold at Rs. 750, the Minister requested.