What bothers citizens most and makes them strongly argue is things that disrupt their normal lives and mess up with plans made according to their usual routine.
One of these issues is the hike in prices of consumer goods and stationery every year when everyone is getting ready for the school year. Stationery prices have gone up substantially this year in all malls and shopping centres.
Families who travelled abroad shopped there for whatever their children needed for the school year. Parents could buy their children something unique, in that it is not available in Qatar, and got the necessary things at much cheaper prices.
The same applies to consumer goods whose prices go up during Ramadan, the summer vacations, and the back to school period.
In view of this I think we need to confront the greedy traders and take steps to stop the application of the government’s decision determining which commodities are subject to the supervision of the Consumer Protection Department until laws to regulate the economy and organise the local market are prepared.
The economic legislative system is linked to regulation of the market in response to appeals from citizens to the Advisory Council, which considered the issue of unjustified price hikes and asked for a comprehensive study to put an end to these practices and bring back stability to prices in the market.
Certain companies in the country have a monopoly on selling some goods, including some key consumer goods, stationery, spare parts of cars and various electronic goods.
These companies have become entrenched in their businesses with support from the authorities and pay no attention to customers’ interests. Sometimes, they sell their products at prices that are five times higher than those in the countries of origin.
We demand that the Advisory Council submit a plea to the Cabinet to use its legal authority and put an end to manipulation of the basic needs of customers.
By doing this, the Advisory Council will play its real, parliamentary role as citizens are expecting a lot from the council in the coming days.
The citizens are now aware of everything and cannot remain silent regarding any steps taken against their interests.
Everybody is anticipating completion of work on laws related to the economy, including the consumer protection code, which has been ineffective in the face of price hikes by greedy traders controlling the market.
