TODAY VENEZUELA – With the administrative decision on the Law on Fair Prices having been amended, the way is cleared for the Venezuelan government to gain ground and deal once and for all with distribution of all food items in Venezuela, admitted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
In line with the remarks of Venezuelan Vice-President Jorge Arreaza and the head of the Superintendence of Fair Prices, César Ferrer, Maduro recalled that “all those measures for the new price system have to do with the way of regularization of a socioeconomic activity which overtakes the factors of the economic war.”
Meanwhile, Arreaza and Ferrer keep on educating on the decision on fair prices. The move is intended to make the business sector implement the maximum price of public sales and the fair price, in addition to the prohibition of markup and cost estimates at the parallel exchange rate.
Precisely, the National Commission of Fair Prices and Presidential Councils of Communes, Fishermen and Peasants discussed the enforcement of the maximum price of public sales, applicable to all items and services in the country, and the fair price, aimed at subsidized items.
The vice-president clarified that the profit margin has been set at 30% for domestic producers and 20% for importers, and it should be contemplated in the production final cost. The price may be changed by intermediation channels, that is: distributors and marketers.
The final price may be added up to 60%, which is the intermediation margin that covers the profit of distributors and marketers. The final sale price, which is the cost to be paid by consumers, will come from there.
Moreover, Arreaza stressed that importers should set their costs in the prices in US dollars established by the National Center for Foreign Trade (Cencoex), the Ancillary Foreign Currency Administration System (Sicad) and the rate of the Foreign Exchange Marginal System (Simadi), instead of using illegal exchange rates. Any importer that fails to comply with this rule will be punished with prison. “Nobody imports here with parallel dollar,” he warned.
For his part, the head of Sundde, César Ferrer, reported that anti-speculation monitoring will be enhanced with 3,000 inspectors. He noted that so far this year, 55,000 inspections have been conducted and more than 20,000 offenders have been punished.
Ferrer informed about the implementation of an operation plan to oversee internet sales.
