KUWAIT CITY, May 8: Minister of Social Affairs and Labor, and State Minister for Economic Affairs Hind Al-Sabeeh affirmed that there is no extraordinary increase in prices of commodities at cooperative societies in the advent of the month of Ramadan.

​In response to a parliamentary question, Al-Sabeeh explained that the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor revised the budgets of cooperative societies and discovered that the sales rate in 2016/2017 was higher than that of 2014/2015.

This disproves the claims that shareholders have abstained from buying from cooperative societies. She revealed that the ministry formed a committee which recorded the prices of commodities before the decision to increase the fuel prices was enforced, and they then compared them with the prices after the decision was enforced. She affirmed that there were no unwarranted differences in the prices.

The minister said Article 8 of the ministerial decision No 16/2016 regarding organizing cooperative societies’ work obligates the board of directors of each cooperative society to form three committees including a purchase committee which is responsible for taking necessary steps for ensuring price control in favor of the public. She revealed that the ministry implemented a number of processes in September 2016 including canceling the involvement of agents and brokers and identifying the outlets for vegetables and fruits with which the cooperative societies will deal with directly.

Meanwhile, Minister of Commerce and Industry and acting State Minister for Youth Affairs Khalid Al-Roudhan, in response to a parliamentary question, revealed that there is no specific committee in the ministry that is responsible for monitoring the prices. He clarified that this task is part of the responsibilities of the Commercial Control Department and other relevant departments. The minister explained that the prices are usually followed up and recorded in the month of January every year. The results are then recorded in the database.

Al-Roudhan revealed that 12 violations related to an unjustified increase in prices were reported during the period between September 1, 2016, and March 15, 2017, and the violators were referred to the Commercial Prosecution. He affirmed that there were no violations related to the prices of commodities in the cooperative societies which are bound by the decisions of the Cooperative Societies Union. Al-Roudhan assured that the ministry will receive any complaints related to price manipulations and will carry out investigations over them, adding that legal actions will be taken immediately against any violation if proven to be valid.

News Source: By Fares Al-Abadan, Al-Seyassah Staff