‘Unscrupulous actors’ are the major contributors to food inflation in the country, says the Federal Competition and Consumers Protection Commission (FCCPC).
Other causes, according to the commission, are price fixing by bad eggs and entrance levies imposed by market associations.
FCCPC Executive Vice Chairman/Chief Executive Officer Tunji Bello said with time, ’all the bad eggs’ engaged in hoarding, artificial market creation, price fixing, and gouging, would be checkmated by the government.
Bello added that “unethical practices” remained offences punishable under sections 18(3)(c), 62,63,66(1),108 of the FCCP Act 2018.
He spoke during a town hall meeting with industry captains, Micro, small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), market leaders, farmers, transporters, and service providers in Kano.
Noting that the Act prescribes stiff penalties ranging from heavy fine to jail terms for offenders, he told the stakeholders that the commission chose to, first, explore the option of dialogue in the “spirit of democracy.”
Bello explained that FCCP investigators found out that the unscrupulous produce merchants were in the habit of mopping up and hoarding newly harvested grains from farms and markets, thereby ‘’endangering our national food security.’’
His words: “Without caring for the consequences of their action on fellow countrymen and women, some of these unscrupulous actors go as far as taking some of the food items they had mopped up from farmers or the markets and smuggle them across the borders to sell at a premium.
“Don’t get us wrong; we are by no means saying everyone is guilty here. We only have a few bad eggs involved in such unethical practices. It is therefore our collective responsibility to work together to achieve reasonable pricing of goods and services, especially at a time the country is undergoing bold economic reforms which may bring temporary discomfort today but will usher a better economy for us tomorrow.”
Bello consequently solicited the support of the Kano State stakeholders to curb the unwholesome practice in the national interest.
Listing the gains of an earlier engagement by the commission in Lagos, Bello noted that President Bola Tinubu had already responded to some of the yearnings of the stakeholders in the form of new policies.
He said: “We have a very listening President. He feels for the people, shares their pains, and is ever willing to go the extra mile to cushion the effects of the hardship the ongoing economic reforms have brought.
“The Federal Government has also commenced the implementation of zero Value Added Tax (VAT) and excise duties on pharmaceutical products and medical devices. Just as a number of taxes have also been removed to assist micro, small, medium enterprises as well as taxes being removed from public transportation.”
The Executive Vice-Chairman urged the stakeholders to be patriotic by sharing the gains of the concessions granted them by the government with the consumers.
“For instance, when the government assists the operators of public transportation with easy credits to convert their vehicles from petrol to relatively far cheaper CNG(Compressed Natural Gas), we don’t expect them to charge the same fares as those who buy petrol,” Bello said. (Nation)