Minister Minasyan urges supermarket managers to refrain from statements affecting pricing
Armenia’s government is waiting for the results of the studies of the State Commission for the Protection of the Economic Competition in connection with the increase in prices in order to implement its future steps, Artsvik Minasyan – minister of economic development and investments, told reporters at a briefing in Tsakhkadzor.
“Taking into account the fact that the issue is within the functions of the SCPEC, we first of all need to wait for their examinations, they also have an influence opportunity, in other words, a respective set of tools in case of groundless or non-objective increase in prices. But a priority task is that we need to take action at the very beginning of the price increase system chain, this is just the government’s task. The first task is to rule out corruption elements in the pricing system, non-market rules so that both the manufacturer, the importer and trade organizer will know his/her concrete rules of the game and it must be equal for all”, the minister said, adding that a supermarket that has a leading position in any area cannot dictate the rules of the game if they are not clear and available for the remaining ones.
Commenting on the explanations of the supermarket managers according to which they have worked in other tax field in order to avoid price increase, minister Minasyan stated: “I would like to urge the supermarket owners and managers to refrain from such statements at this moment which can affect the pricing. It would be better to discuss these issues around a table and based on analysis”.
The minister stated that they will soon present concrete proposals aimed at ensuring economic competitiveness and setting equal rules of the game. “The talk is not only about the supermarkets, at the moment we also need to coordinate the fairs. Here as well the rules of the game are violated, they are sometimes violated unilaterally by creating inadequate conditions for commercial entities”, Artsvik Minasyan said, adding that the observations will also start in fairs. “There were complaints in several fairs, we plan to invite them for discussions and dialogue”, he said.
