DOHA: Not many people believe that outlets comply strictly with the government’s price control directives for food and non-food items during Ramadan.
However, generally there is consensus among consumers at large that state monitoring of outlets is strict during the fasting month.
Many people wonder why such monitoring cannot be done round-the-year and why it is restricted to the holy month.
Some outlets have raised the prices of several food items in Ramadan, especially cooking oil imported from Saudi Arabia, canned tuna, sardine fish and peas.
Local Arabic daily Al Raya yesterday quoted people as saying that they felt prices had gone up 20 percent in the fasting month compared to previous months.
This calls for stricter monitoring by the state, particularly of items that are part of price control during the holy month, said consumers.
Once outlets have raised prices, they don’t roll them back to the previous levels, while consumers believe price rise introduced in Ramadan is temporary. Some outlets raise prices slightly so consumers don’t feel the pinch.
Promotions launched in the fasting month must be watched carefully by inspectors. Outlets first raise prices by 60 percent and then announce a discount of 10 percent, said a consumer.
Another problem is that despite the price control list of 400 items for this Ramadan, not all outlets offer them at uniform rates.
“You will always find slight variations in prices from one outlet to the other,” said a consumer.
A citizen, Mubarak Al Naimi, said he had noticed that the prices of Egyptian rice, wheat flour and macaroni, particularly, had gone up during the holy month.
The Peninsula
