C.S.O. conducts price checks at Belize City shops

On Friday we showed you some of the many Belizeans who rushed to stock up on groceries in anticipation of post G.S.T. price increases. Today, officials from the Central Statistical Office hit the streets of the old capital to conduct spot checks on store shelves and News Five’s Alyssa Noble tagged along.

Robert Griffith, Cayo District Supervisor. C.S.O.
?The exercise right now is only in Belize City. We have most of the major grocery stores, the clothing boutiques, the schools, and the restaurants. We will be down here for a week.?

Alyssa Noble, Reporting
Today, employees of the Central Statistical Office visited Belize City?s major supermarkets in an effort to compare pre-G.S.T. prices with post-G.S.T. increases.

Robert Griffith
?Since the G.S.T. started on the first, we are collecting prices. We normally collect prices, every three months for inflation and what we are doing is to, since the G.S.T. just started, we are coming out into the field to see what would be the change now.?

According to Cayo district supervisor Robert Griffith, the initiative is designed to be as comprehensive as possible.

Robert Griffith
?We have the foodstuffs, rice, beans, sugar. We have the bathroom, the toiletries. We have as you say, we collect school fees, the fees that you pay going to school, we do rents, and we do appliances. Right now, I?m here in Brodie?s and you have Mr. Nicholson over at Save-U. From there we?ll go up to the Angelus Press on the Northern Highway, Courts on the Northern Highway and coming down to Tow Tow, the Chinese store on Mahogany St. Ext. So we are all over Belize City, both south side and north side.?

Griffith says similar exercises are scheduled to take place throughout the country.

Robert Griffith
?Well our consumer price is done every three months, so in August the whole country will be targeted again including the stores in Belize City. So in August, everybody, all the officers in the districts will be in the field.?

The findings of today?s initiative will be released at the end of the month. C.S.O reps say that if businesses are found to be taking advantage of consumers, the Ministry of Finance will decide the consequences.