TO PREVENT THE GROWTH OF PRICES FOR SOCIALLY IMPORTANT GOODS

TO PREVENT THE GROWTH OF PRICES FOR SOCIALLY IMPORTANT GOODS

A working meeting on the stabilization of prices for food products with the participation of control and supervisory authorities and heads of wholesale, retail and retail chains was held in the regional akimat.

Opening the meeting, Akim of the West Kazakhstan region Gali Iskaliyev noted that every year in the New Year period there is a rush to purchase food and other necessary goods by the population, which leads to their rise in price.
- In particular, a sharp increase in prices has a significant impact on socially vulnerable segments of the population and low-income families. Unjustified increase in food prices, or an increase in their cost only because of an increase in demand is unacceptable," the governor of the region stressed.

In order to prevent violations in the field of competition protection, the Department of the Agency for the Protection and Development of Competition of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the West Kazakhstan region conducts: analysis of the state of competition in commodity markets; monitoring of the activities of market entities occupying a dominant or monopoly position, monitoring of prices in commodity markets.
- This year, 9 analyses were conducted on the NWPT market, as a result of which 11 notifications were issued on signs of violation of the legislation in the field of competition protection, including 6 notifications under subclause 2) of Article 174 of the PC RK - the application of different prices or different conditions to equivalent agreements with market entities, LLP "Perun Trade", LLP "Astanaprod", LLP "Oral Logistics", IP "Marchenko", LLP "Ural Poultry Farm" (for chicken meat), 4 notifications under subclause 1) paragraph 1 of art. 170 PC RK - establishing and (or) maintaining prices or other conditions for the purchase or sale of goods - IP "Edamenko" , IP "Abatov", LLP "Dina Market", LLP "Ideal Market" (for sugar) and 1 notification according to clause 9, clause 2 of Article 194 (granting certain market entities privileges or other advantages that put them in a privileged position relative to competitors, or creating unfavorable or discriminatory conditions of activity in comparison with competitors).

 


To date, all the above-mentioned notifications have been executed in full, V.ch. with a price reduction. Also this year, upon the fact of a public statement about a possible price increase to producers of bread, eggs, flour and chicken meat, the Department issued 6 warnings about the inadmissibility of violating the legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the field of competition protection: LLP "Zhaiyk Et", JSC "Zhelaevsky Combine of bread products", LLP "Beles-Market", IP "Popkov A.B.", LLP "Ural Poultry Farm", LLP "Agrofirma "Akas". Also, in order to take systematic measures to prevent violations of the legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the field of competition protection, the department signed and concluded external acts of antimonopoly compliance with 2 regional retail chains, in terms of reducing the trade mark-up for 19 items of the NWPT from 15% to 10% - Anvar LLP and IP Abatov, as well as with producers of bakery products to curb prices in the amount of 80 tenge for 1 bread of the first grade - IP "Isaev H.H." and IP "Taletsky O.V.", and with the producer of first-grade flour and pasta with JSC "Zhelaevsky combine of bread products" to prevent unjustified price increases.

The Department established the facts of non-compliance by subjects of internal trade, such as: Altyndar LLP, Abatov K.U., Edamenko A.A., Ideal Market LLP, and Dina Market LLP with the requirements of paragraph 20 of the Rules of Internal Trade, namely, exceeding the maximum trade allowance for NWPT, all of the above entities were brought to administrative responsibility under Article 204-4 of the Administrative Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan, with the imposition of administrative penalties. Also, during the analysis, the facts of charging retro bonuses by the retail distributor of Right Market LLP (former Altyndar) were revealed, which were subsequently sent (3 materials) to the office of the akim of Uralsk and the Department of Entrepreneurship and Agriculture of Uralsk for the appointment of an unscheduled inspection and appropriate response measures. According to the facts affecting the cost of NWPT (eggs, meat and dairy products), an analysis was also carried out on the market of production and sale of compound feed, according to the results of which JSC "Zhelaevsky KHP" reduced the price of bran from 75 thousand tenge to 68 thousand tenge per 1 ton.


The head of the antimonopoly department warned the subjects of trade that violation of the law is fraught with large fines.
- With the annual income of the entity in the amount of 500 million tenge, the fine will amount to 15 million tenge for a medium-sized business entity with the withdrawal of the monopoly one, we also inform you that in 2019 the Department conducted an investigation against retail sugar sellers under Article 1, paragraph 1, Article 169 of the PC RK - anticompetitive horizontal agreements. For example, following the results of the investigation, an administrative fine of 180,720 tenge was imposed on the Best Solution LLP with the withdrawal of monopoly income in the amount of 320,740 tenge. Anvar LLP was fined 40,888 tenge with the withdrawal of monopoly income in the amount of 3,524 tenge. A fine of 402,645 tenge was imposed on Altyndar LLP. - Salavat Vakhitov gave examples.

Akim of the West Kazakhstan region Gali Iskaliev recommended that the heads of retail facilities refrain from raising prices for socially significant products, as well as, if possible, reduce the surcharge from 15 to 10%.

There are hundreds of items in retail outlets, the list of socially significant items includes only 19 items, the price for these goods should not increase. Including transportation, packaging, etc., the surcharge on these products should not exceed 15%. There should be no additional allowances for retro bonuses, shelves, nothing like that. In case of detection of violations and unjustified overstatement of prices, measures will be applied to the owners of retail facilities. I also have a big request to the heads of retail chains to reduce the trade allowance to 10%, thus supporting our citizens before the new year," Gali Iskaliyev recommended.
Director of "Agrofirma Akas" LLP Damir Ashigaliyev said that according to their monitoring of egg prices, entrepreneurs set a high premium and asked to allocate places for trading products from the manufacturer.

 

 

At the end of the meeting, the akim of the region gave instructions on taking operational measures to identify the facts of unjustified increase and price collusion, as well as the heads of wholesale, retail and retail chains were given the following recommendations:
- to prevent unjustified and sharp increase in food prices;
- to provide for the purchase of food products from manufacturers without intermediaries;
- to ensure the sale of food products without including the amount of remuneration with the lowest possible trade premium.

At the same time, residents of the region are invited to contact the department of the Agency for the Protection and Development of Competition, the Department of Entrepreneurship or the departments of entrepreneurship of the districts and the city if the facts of high prices for socially significant food products are revealed.