Special Taskforce to Meet with Indian Importers on Price Gouging

In a cabinet brief issued earlier this week, it was announced that the task force headed by the Minister of Agriculture to address the rampant issue of price gouging, will be meeting with importers within the Indian community.  This comes after a recent sit down with business owners within the Chinese community who engage in wholesaling and retailing various commodities.  According to Minister Jose Abelardo Mai, a meeting has been set for Monday to discuss with Indian importers a possible solution to the massive overcharge that is currently taking place.

Jose Abelardo Mai

Jose Abelardo Mai, Minister of Agriculture

“We met with the Chinese community’s shop owners, the retailers, a lot of them are retailers and wholesalers but they are not importers.  The majority of the importers are the Indians, we refer to them as the Hindus.  They are the larger importers.  Now, it’s easy to pass the buck, “I’m not gouging, I’m just reacting to the price I am being sold.”  And so, they are saying that we need to meet with the importers and that is exactly what our team is doing this week.  They are planning a meeting with the importers, one.  Two, on Monday, my CEO, my director of supplies control is meeting with the public service because they are the ones who asked, who requested to be included and expressed a desire to help to curve the supposed gouging.  And so, we will meet on Monday to plan how we move with that and plan even the training of the public servants who will be policing the stores.”