New approaches to the stabilization of prices for social food products were discussed

Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Trade and Integration of the Republic of Kazakhstan Serik Zhumangarin held a conference call on food security and price control for socially important food products.

The main topic of discussion was the implementation of new approaches aimed at stabilizing prices for basic food products without sharp fluctuations and shortages. As the chairman of the Trade Committee of the MTI RK Yerzhan Kazanbayev informed, as part of the implementation of new mechanisms for allocating "working capital", schemes for the redistribution of financing for each region have already been brought to akimats. Nine regions have not yet brought the financing to the required indicative, in total it is 14.9 billion tenge. The task has been set to complete all the necessary procedures by October 1 this year.

Since September 20, akimats, together with representatives of NCE "Atameken", have been conducting extensive explanatory work in the regions on the current legislation on trade policy among the owners of shops at home, large supermarkets and other sellers of socially significant food products. The key element is compliance with the established norm of the trade allowance for socially significant food products, not exceeding 15%. Since September 15, Trade Committee of the MTI RK, in order to increase the reliability of the analysis of data on the dynamics of price growth for basic foodstuffs, has included public control: a call center has been created to receive complaints from residents about inflated prices for products included in the SSFP list. Facebook Instagram and social media accounts of MTI are also receiving complaints. During the 9 days of work on the new channels, 31 complaints were received from residents of the regions, explanatory work was carried out with store owners on 18 of them. According to the revealed facts of a significant excess of the size of the trade allowance, the materials were transferred to the relevant executive bodies. In total, since the beginning of 2022, about 340 complaints on excess of the trade allowance have been submitted to akimats. The vast majority — for inflated prices in stores at home.

«Shops near the house, where a small number of people are served, should not serve as price guidelines for social food products. Within 2 weeks, it is necessary to carry out work in all regions to attract retail chains, supermarkets to sign memoranda on compliance with the trade margin on socially significant products of no more than 10% by the end of the year,» - Serik Zhumangarin said.

Another important task is to establish work on automating the formation of the commodity balance. According to Yerzhan Kazanbayev, the unified automated platform of the national commodity distribution system will work in pilot mode from October this year. Starting next year, it is planned to put into commercial operation according to the module of vegetable storages.

Proposals on the development of retail chains in the capital were made by the Akimat of Astana at the meeting. The proposals were supported and sent for further study with the relevant government agencies and organizations.