The Government of the Federation added six more products for which the margin is limited, so that there are now a total of 15. How much can this measure contribute to household budgets and improve the standard of citizens? The government announces price freezes for another 34 products, but only afterthe New Year.
After the list that had nine products, the expanded one has an additional six. From bread, oil, milk, to dish detergent. The federal government, with a new decision to limit margins, mainly on food products, is trying to make it easier for the population, with already low incomes, to fight against inflation.
“The costs are what they are, the consumer basket is 3,300 BAM, limiting the margins in the best case means that the prices will be the same as they are now. So nothing will be cheaper. Our calculations show record fillings year after year. That money must be returned to the citizens and that’s the only way to overcome the crisis,” says the president of the Futura Consumers Association, Marin Bago.
The regulation of the maximum amount of the margin in stores for additional groceries will be applied until the end of the year. Will the most socially vulnerable categories of the population feel the benefits of this decision?
“No one can say at the moment how much of an impact it will have on prices, because there was no talk of setting maximum prices. A much simpler and more efficient model would be to determine, based on real input costs, what would be the real sustainable price of a certain product,” explains economic analyst Igor Gavran.
New price increases, namely the increase in the price of diesel, are expected. The government announces a set of fiscal laws that would improve the living standards of the increasingly poor population.
The government is considering freezing prices for 34 products after New Year. It would be the best decision for consumers, and for retail chains it would be a strengthening of the gray market.
“There could be a problem if the purchase price of some items is higher than the selling price, that is, the frozen price. A mechanism should be created to prevent this, because there lies the danger that traders will not want to sell these items. They will not acquire them and they will not be on sale, regardless of the low price, and in parallel they could appear on the gray market. That is not good”, warns the president of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) Employers’ Association, Adnan Smailbegovic.
E.Dz.
