Okaz/Saudi Gazette RIYADH — The Consumer Protection Association (CPA) has asked traders and businessmen to shoulder their responsibility toward consumers and not to exploit the holy month of Ramadan to increase the prices of essential commodities. "The merchants should not exploit the purchasing spree during the fasting month to increase the prices of some of their products without any justification," Abdulrahman Al-Qahtani, secretary general of the CPA, said. Quoting a report from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), he said the prices of a number of commodities, including edible oil, have gone down in the world for three consecutive months except in the Kingdom. "The Saudi market did not follow the world trend of declining prices especially in the month of March," he said. Qahtani said, according to the FAO report covering the trend of prices in the first quarter of 2017, the prices of about 52 foodstuffs have decreased while they remained at their same old level in the Kingdom. "The prices of about 27 various commodities have gone up while those of nine out of 88 were stable but in the Kingdom the prices of all these commodities were upped," he noted. The official attributed the high prices in the Kingdom to the advent of Ramadan and to the restoration of increments and bonuses to government employees. "The economic indicators in the Kingdom and the weakness of the punching power should have reduced prices not increase them," he said. He asked consumers to look for other alternatives when the prices of a certain commodity is increased. "Consumers should rationalize their consumption in Ramadan and in other months of the year," he added. He was sure that if the consumers were united in their search for alternatives, they would be sending a clear message to the greedy merchants not to hike their prices unjustifiably. Qahtani asked the Ministry of Commerce and Investments to control the market with a view to putting an end to the greediness of some exploitative merchants. He also asked the traders not to take advantage of Ramadan to increase the prices of their commodities. "The Saudi market should keep pace with the international market and to reduce prices when they go down globally," he said. Qahtani said as a none-government organization, the CPA does not have the power to punish but will only report violations to the concerned authorities. "We receive a large number of complaints from the consumers about the high prices but we cannot do anything about this except reporting the violators to the concerned authorities," he explained.
