‘Don’t hike prices of water and electricity now’ – MOCI official says not detected price increase on commodities

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KUWAIT CITY, Sept 10: Ministry of Commerce and Industry did not detect any unjustifiable hike in prices of commodities when its officials carried out a procedure to compare the current prices with prices of the beginning of this year, reports Al-Shahed daily.

An official source assured that the ministry will not hesitate to refer any violator to the concerned committee followed by the Commercial Prosecution Unit, affirming that the officials have been empowered to carry out inspections wherever they suspect foul play, especially in supermarkets. He explained that the trade inspection teams recorded some violations during a recent inspection activity.

Some of the violations were relating to hiding the countries of origin for certain products and price violation. The emergency team recently inspected supermarkets within the wholesale and meat markets during which they issued citations for violations. Meanwhile, Al-Sadiq Emergency Team affiliated to the ministry discovered a warehouse in Shuwaikh Industrial Area where used tires were stored instead of consumable products.

Meanwhile, several ministries and government institutions have asked the Ministry of Electricity and Water to expedite the issuance of the executive regulations for law number 20/2016 on increasing electricity and water charges, reports Al-Shahid daily quoting sources.

Sources said the ministry has officially requested that the increased electricity and water consumption value should be listed, based on the new charges, in the budget for fiscal 2017/2018.

However, numerous government bodies affirmed the importance of listing the increase of consumption charges in the budget for 2018/2019, given that the 2017/2018 budget was completed recently.

Sources pointed out this budget has been completed with majority of the rationalized expenditures, so listing the increased electricity and water charges will lead to major budget imbalance which, if it happens, will prioritized over the development projects. Sources asserted the executive regulations will be the “determiner and organizer”, affirming the Cabinet has looked into the applications of some ministries and government institution to postpone the enforcement of the increment until the budget of 2018/2019, especially since the executive regulations have yet to be issued.

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