Tiraspol, 26 April. /Novosti Pridnestrovya/. As Novosti Pridnestrovya has reported, the government's anti-crisis package was discussed at a meeting of the parliamentary committee on economic policy, budget and finance, which took place on 21 April. Committee members argued for the approval of the package on first reading, but proposed to make certain amendments to the submitted document, including those referring to the most significant anti-crisis draft — the temporary expansion of the list of goods with restricted markup.
Currently, the right to fix prices, profitability ceilings and markups for the goods which are not on the list of socially important products, but are essential goods belongs to the Price and Antimonopoly Committee.
«This refers to the possibility of establishing the maximum profitability ceiling and markup, which must not exceed 30%," explained Vitaly Ulitka in an interview with Novosti Pridnestrovya.
The list of essential goods, whose markups can be restricted by the committee, includes beef, pork, chicken, fresh fish, frozen herring, granulated sugar, table salt, as well as black tea, potato, cabbage, onion, carrot, beet-root, apples, ryazhenka, yoghurt, curds.
However, the amendment proposed by lawmakers provides for the restriction of the maximum markup for this list of products in case their retail prices are higher than in neighbouring countries.
«The government control of each product is only possible if their retail prices in Pridnestrovie exceed those in Ukraine and Moldova. Only in this case we can introduce governmental control," noted Vitaly Ulitka.
He explained that the committee would conduct the monthly monitoring of retail prices for essential products in various retail outlets of Pridnestrovie, Moldova and Ukraine. The monitoring procedure is to be determined by the government, and its results will be published in the Pridnestroivie daily.
«The price control takes effect 10 working days after the publication of monitoring results. It is introduced, among other things, to stop the so called 'product tourism'," concluded the chairman of the Price and Antimonopoly Committee.
In this way, according to Vitaly Ulitka, this measure will prevent to some extent the withdrawal of foreign currency from Pridnestrovie and also stimulate retailers to sell these products at reduced prices.
