17 December 2024 08:09 am Views - 16
By Ajith Siriwardana
The Consumer Affairs Council of the Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) is taking steps to set maximum prices for a large number of goods in the market, Trade, Commerce, Food Security and Cooperative Development Minister Wasantha Samarasinghe said yesterday.
He told the media that consumers had to face a heavy burden in the market due to discrepancies in the pricing of goods.
The Minister said various goods even water bottles have been priced exorbitantly where a water bottle is sold at Rs. 100 whereas it could be sold less than Rs. 40.
“The wholesale price of a packet of salt is Rs. 52 and it is sold at Rs. 100. Consumers have to undergo extra burden in the market. Consumer Affairs Council of the Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) is taking steps to set maximum prices for a large variety of goods. You will know the list of goods shortly,” he said.
Responding to a question, the Minister said various importers had imported rice for the last few days that three out of seventy-five containers had contained rice unfit for human consumption and that they were ordered to re-export the three containers.
Responding to another question, he said the use of rice for beer production has no impact on rice shortage in the country as only 20,000 metric tonnes of total annual paddy harvest of 2.9 million metric tonnes are used for beer production while the annual rice consumption is 2.4 million metric tonnes.