The government is closely monitoring the prices of essentials and has reportedly turned down the request of several major importers and retailers to increase their rates due to commodity prices escalating worldwide.

Reliable sources told The Peninsula yesterday that only a few importers-cum-retailers were earlier allowed to raise the prices of some food and non-food products by five percent after they insisted that their profitability would be hit hard because of the spiralling costs globally.

Then came the Ramadan fair price list for 275 basic food and non-food items which is being made effective from today, that some major importers-cum-retailers describe as ‘unfair price list’, claiming they would actually be incurring losses.

It is learned that during discussions with the consumer rights watchdog (Consumer Protection Council or CPD) of the Ministry of Business and Trade over the Ramadan fair price list at least one major rice importer vehemently opposed the retail price cap for its products.

The ‘fair prices’ decided by the CPD and the market rates of this importing company’s products actually vary hugely and are much above the average margin between their selling rates and the mandatory Ramadan prices.

A list of selling prices of the 275 ‘Ramadan items’ a major retail outlet has prepared for its own use, which was made available to this newspaper, shows that the outlets must sell the above products for 10 to 15 percent less than their actual market rates.

Consumers have largely been critical of the Ramadan fair price list saying the rate caps fixed by the CPD for the 275 items hardly provide any relief.

But there are others who insist they don’t agree with this view and actually laud the efforts of the CPD saying that the fair price list means that retailers would at least not be able to hike the prices during the fasting month due to rising demand.

Limited-income expatriate families would be making a beeline to stock up essentials like rice, wheat flour, edible oil, tissue papers and detergents, among other things that are included in the Ramadan price list for longer use.

But market sources say there is the need for CPD field inspectors to keep a closer vigil on the market during the fasting month and not allow small grocery store operators to buy in bulk the fair price items and hoard stocks up for sale after Ramadan for profiteering.