FG Should Not Only Control the Prices of Supermarket Goods But Also That of Petrol -Ogunsola

[Music] all right glad to have you back also in the week the federal government through its agency the federal competition and consumer protection commission fccpc issued a one-month moratorium to Traders and other Market stakeholders involved in exploitative pricing to crash the prices of goods while the newly appointed Executive Vice chairman of the fccpc tunji Bell said this at a one-day stakeholders engagement on exploitative pricing on Thursday here in Abuja well according to B the commission will begin enforcement after the moratorium he said that the move wants to address the growing trend of unreasonable pricing of consumer goods and services and the on wholesome prais of Market associations the commission said it discovered in one of its findings that a fruit blender known as ninja was being sold at a popular supermarket in Texas for $89 that's about $14 ,000 n but the same product was displayed for 944 999 naira in a supermarket in VI Lagos that's Victoria Island that's about nine times well according to fccpc other section 155 violators whether individuals or corporate entities face severe penalties including substantial fines and imprisonment if found guilty by the court the commission says government was aware of most of the problems raised by The Market stakeholders and is addressing them but calls on the traders to stop their gang up to exploit consumers and put unnecessary pressure on the economy well to help us dissect uh this particular issue we have with us in the studio a finance and economic expert Dr Akin Akin ausa I think I got that right now today AA uh right glad to have you join me uh I was going to say this morning always on the morning program thank you it's my pleasure to be with you again this my pleasure to have you uh what what what's your sense of uh this deadline is T Bell just a blowing hot as a newly appointed uh EVC of fccpc or you think it means business yeah um I think it needss it means business actually because um is actually too much of um what the consumers in Nigeria actually facing um the consumers are facing high level of inflation and persistent you know rise in prices of goods and services yes um I agree with the um Mr tjo for that um statement but um I think he needs to do more and possibly start from the top now what do I mean by starting from the top he is majorly focusing on supermarkets and markets Traders but what about petroleum product what about diesel consumers are on a daily basis cheated on the price of petrol some persons buy at 617 some persons buy at 678 some persons buy at 700 8 different prices and it is not hidden and the fccpc is not doing anything about that and that is a very major um you know price determinant of goods and services petrol diesel gas they are major factors that determine price what about electricity are consumers not cheated on electricity some persons are charged exorbitant prices they call it ban a ban b b whatever ban and people are been given exorbitant prices how do they fix the price of electricity I think he needs to go beyond um just food yes let him start from there but I think there are major factors that determine those prices the price of electricity we'll get that the price of petroleum we'll get the minimum wage of salaries of Staff in those you know businesses are going to be increased then there are a lot of other corruption underground you set to Market Traders before you enter the market you said to pay all forms of um minor taxes so these are the issues all right well uh it's it's uh it's I don't know what I to say mind-blowing or I when I read this thing I it's not even anchor I think it's uh I I couldn't just place it how somebody could a product that sells for $89 that's about $14,000 na in taxes USA somebody selling it at 149,000 naira here that's wicked I think that's the way to describe it but what's the possibility of uh the modalities I mean I'm sure is listening or somebody who knows him is listening so he taking uh what you said which makes which which is a very good case you know about start at the top you know what's the possibility the viability if you like uh of enforcing these penalties or this this penalty could go to court it go it could be fined you could be jailed and all that what what what's the possibility yeah um I think the possibility is just um it's going to be just for some few places because I I feel that the fccpc doesn't have enough manpower to cover the vast Market we have in Nigeria we have a lot of markets in Abuja in Lagos all the states of the country so if we only talking of Market in Lagos and Abuja they should go to the market in yob state they should go to the market in h kaduna in Koo in sooko what is happening there it is not only Abuja and Lagos that they are fixing prices prices are fixed all over the nation and the excuses that these Traders give they give the excuse of the exchange rates is going up excuse of insecurity excuse of price of petrol how much they sell petrol per liter in tooto state in or a diesel or even the electricity tariff you know and then a lot of other costs associated there are road taxes you know illegal um how do you put it now uh illegal roadblocks that these trailers that are you know conveying food items we just need to drop something before they pass so how do they control um all that you know so those are the reasons that these Traders actually give apart from the corruption yes there's a corruption he said there's a gang up by Traders he mentioned it to actually um you know cheat the consumers yes that fact is known they buy it cheaper and before that product enters the market you have to go and settle this pay you know this tax the trailer before they offload it they must go and pay some fine or some taxes and all that so they put all that into consideration the rent of those stores the landlord of those stores have also increased the rent claiming that there's INF and all manner of reasons well recently the the Bishops archbishops they had a conference requesting Nigerians to be honest and stop lying I'm saying this because BOS said he's actually he even said this is not about trying to force anybody but trying to appeal to you you know before the one month so he's appealing to the consciences of Nigerians so what do you make of that can we ever get get to a place where people would try really to be honest and and and and and and not lie unconscionably and then uh again unconscionably raise prices to make what do you call it in profit profiteering yeah profiteering you know yeah so well um that's why I said in my introduction that it should start from the top when we see that the price of petrol at The Filling Station is actually fixed you can wake up from your house any day anytime you can say okay this is the price of petrol I'm going to buy then you can plan then you can plan or this is the price of diesel that we buy today you know for production then you can easily plan but when you wake up you in fact once you wake up you just discover there's no petrol there's scarcity that's another thing all together that's another thing so you begin to look for Black Market to actually buy and they will sell to you at which increases your overhead it increases your overhead so these are the factors that causes this hike not withstanding yes his own argument is that yes there are factors that determines this hike but people are now taking advantage of it and you know pushing it overboard yes those ones are there they need to cop that but just like I said they should start from the main things that actually determines the the price of a product now somebody selling tomatoes for examp example Tomatoes is not imported Nigeria is the third largest producer of tomatoes in the world despite that maybe over 60% of it rot away because we don't have you know pres Sy storage system so tomato supposed to be something you know so common I remember the price of tomato was hitting this the roof uh sometimes around it became an essential commodity of course tomato became gold of course so what actually made the price of tomatoes to start in the room well I'll tell you because the the platform for Market stakeholders they voiced their concerns because they they also they came for the meeting and they spoke up they talked about the insecurity High Transportation cost of course which we've been talking about here multiple taxation they talked about high charges on imported goods you know at the Port cost of Trailer Load in fact one of the Traders said a cost of Trailer Load of tires Legos to abuji used to be 450,000 but now it's about a what it's about a million plus yes over a million so I mean government should be able to address this particularly that of insecurity and of course of course all this the that's just what I'm saying so the the fccpc just wake up and say they are increasing the prices you know and cheating Nigerians what about the factors that make this price to go you know to actually go up so they should actually do that um the the the legal that we have in Nigeria Mr fallano um sometime s months ago took federal government to court on fixing the prices of milk bread petroleum bicycle based on the um price Control Act and the Court ruled that government should fix these prices within 7 days we are in 7 months now prices are not fixed well can can can can can government even do it do they have the the moral Su to be able to do that seeing that in quarters the complain is about their policies particularly this President government the policy of uh floating the N the policy of uh subsid REM subsid remov which which which which which which is causing the chaos that let's put it like that all over the place so do they even have the moral soltion to be able to do that yeah um I think the moral situation will be difficult because everyone has one reason or the other one excuse just like I'm telling you from the top let the price of petrol be fixed yes if it is 617 Let It Be 617 let's even say it if it is even 700 Let It Be 700 not that you go to some places you see 900 you see 1,000 you see 1,1 fccpc are they not seeing that are they not noting that price of electricity is going up that even federal government say they want to subsidize for hospitals yeah and schools and schools so the other people that are not hospital and schools what do like you and I of course all right well the association of Nigerian Traders the chair is suggesting that task force uh should be involved uh uh to to to you know create a task force to involve the association uh in enforcement I think that will go a long way yeah um I think he needs to strategize more um he's just you know trying to settle down he needs to actually consult widely probably he can you know raise an hardock like the peace call can be collaborated with you know to go around to you know have a widespread of Monitor and enforcement because that's actually the problem the problem we have is enforcement there's no law there's no enforcement agency on prices so if you can collaborate with maybe a peace call or you know one other or two other organizations in Nigeria so that he can have a stronger you know enforcement the people he has in the fccpc they cannot cover it as Six States uh from the findings I've done yeah so they need more hands they need more collaborations maybe within the next one month that he's still appealing to the conscience maybe he will be strategizing to cross the te and do the eyes Jo he's listening to you I hope he's listening to begin to cross the tees and you know dot the eyes on how he can strengthen enforcement monitoring from The Producers directly and also the chain of the you know wholesalers the retailers down to the final consumer whom they say that they actually protecting they have to be part of the chain you know at every stage some persons will be at the producer the point that the producer is selling to the wholesalers there will be an fccpc agent watching then from the point of the wholesalers to the retailers they should also be there to watch so that if there are any barriers like this taxes we are talking about fccpc should be able to clear those people if there are TA they pay on the road they should be able to find something multiple multiple multiple taxation so who is going to go into business and be making losses yeah so if the enforcement is too much it will also cause shortage yeah because everybody will leave the market and say let's look for another business to do these people have blocked this place and that will be another problem all another problem so he trying to solve a problem you create another another real wisdom has to be applied here in the way they go about but there's an interest uh something I read yesterday which is quite interesting and and that b us again on honesty and lying and uh people having a conscience and trying to use their conscience recently bua the bua you know he said he sold a million tons of cement to uh dealers at 3,000 naira each you're smiling about it sold 3,000 naira then they turned around to sell the same product at between 7,000 and 8,000 that's horrible yes I'm aware of the case and B had to say no if fccpc cannot control this racketeering or profiteering that the people are doing is I rather sell higher because I also you know what what he's doing is is is how did he put it he said he's subsidizing yes he was subsidizing for them and they were making more profit so um that's why I said the problem is enforcement now govern was able to you know negotiate at the level of the production and say okay you know B cement can you subsidize you know price of cement but fccpc or government is not there to know how much the final consumer is actually paying I'm sure they they will know from their investigations but enforcement is not there it's just nailed it's it's not there so it needs to strengthen enforcement strategize more we actually need a price control in Nigeria why don't there's a popular saying Nigeria they say whatever goes up never come never seems to come down never come down have you ever seen anyone so the fccpc needs to change the narrative thank God we have a new capable man on seed he needs to actually strategize more and let us change the narrative when inflation begin to nose dive just as we are experiencing now let us also see prices begin to drop we saw the price of meat dropped from 6,000 to 5,000 now it's back to 6,000 so we see all this fluctuation inconsistency instability in prices in Nigeria um they need to do something about it and they should start from the top they should start from the price of petrol price of diesel price of electricity and also provide security so that these are the factors that actually determine the price they should also you know go into the issue of rent yeah landlords are we just wake up and write you a paper and say we have increased the rent have you experienced it I mean it's it's horrible what is fccpc going to do about that will they be there to see when the landlord is writing the agreement to the tenant will fccpc be there or okay FCP say okay if you are a tenant like that please come allow come to our office and report and all that and all that will tell you if you cannot pay leave my property property and you see somebody else coming immediately ready to pay higher than what what you're paying so that's what we that's that's what we see in Nigeria oh Bo I think we're going to leave it there it's been interesting discussing with you Dr kund Gula on an economist on on this what I mean when we had when I mean when I read about it hot the news it was interesting that LE somebody uh that that was why I asked the first question is is it just blowing hot or because he's just coming on board or does he mean business what hopes he means business yes he actually means business but it can turn to blowing hot if he doesn't play you know his cards strategize very well very well be and and what we should also add because of what the marketers have raised as issues it's neither hand or there that the carrot and the stink of course you know because if they give you these reasons which sound Cent apart from the people who are downright trying to cheat yeah the the n out there I mean that that's a different case you know which which he said but there are people who are ganging up so I site those ones they must be able to use car and stick look at uh the reings they are giving and see how they can a little to the left a little to the right so we can meet at at at a point exactly and that's why I said they have to start from the inut the inut is the cost of production the cost of selling is actually Rising so many stores just like I gave example so many okay they are paying rent for their stores for those of them are renting after these taxes after the price of you know transportation of these Goods then after you now talk about the exchange rate that they don't going to you know re you know reload again and you know get the product again then you not talk about the insecurity you know they have to pay a security again to watch after the store so that somebody don't break into it and then the salary of the workers they need to increase because federal government have said 70,000 you know is the minimum is The Benchmark so these are the costs there's no light they have to look for fuel or diesel to power the place you give yourself water you give yourself light and all that these are the cost you know and then the bigger one the tax uh organization FS the state in Revenue Service they come again knocking at your door the local government will come to tax you on the same business so how do you survive on that business well I know that the government has talked about that's one thing they have to really deal with the government talked about uh multiple taxation clearing all that out one hopes that from September yeah so we'll see what Happ is just few hours tomorrow few hours yeah a few hours not even tomorrow all right to thank you so much for your contributions on the program