AMMAN — The
Ministry of Industry, Trade, and Supply conducts daily surveillance on Jordan’s
markets, and has recorded 5,500 commercial violations since the beginning of
2022, ministry spokesperson Yanal Barmawi told
Jordan News on Sunday.
اضافة اعلان
Most of these
violations have involved businesses not displaying prices clearly or raising
prices above government-determined price ceilings, he said.
This followed
recent comments by
National Society of Consumer Protection President Mohammad Obeidat
confronting the ministry for not reducing the prices of certain basic food
staples in the Kingdom, despite a recent report by the World Food Organization
noting their decline in global markets.
The ministry, he
said, “does not look at prices in international markets, so the prices remain
the same”.
Speaking to
Jordan
News on Sunday, the society president also highlighted “clear price
discrepancies” in Jordan’s markets.
“People are
seeing differences in prices between hypermarkets at malls and neighborhood
supermarkets, and differences in the prices of basic goods such as rice and
oil,” Obeidat said.
A reasonable
difference in market prices is a normal sign of competition, he noted.
“However, the price gap shouldn’t be significant, otherwise the ministry should
intervene to make sure shops are selling under the price caps set by the
government.”
‘Not enough’
surveillance?
Obeidat also accused the ministry of failing to implement intensive
market surveillance and controls.
The society
president said that the number of inspectors employed by the ministry is “not
enough to cover Amman alone, much less the whole Kingdom”.
Barmawi,
however, said that the ministry employs a sufficient number of surveillance
officers. “Whenever we have control campaigns, the number of officers is
increased if needed, with the help of many entities such as the Ministry of
Interior.”
The
Industry Ministry
also receives complaints directly from citizens through its social media pages,
and “follows up on them immediately”, the spokesperson said.
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