Amcham requires narrowing down the names of goods that are proposed to be included in the list of socially significant goods.
The letter sent by the American Chamber of Commerce in Moldova (Amcham) to the government, the Competition Council and the Economic Council under the Prime Minister notes the need for a more detailed economic argumentation of the project to expand the list of socially significant goods, with a description of alternative options for solving the problem of accessibility of the population to certain categories of goods and a more detailed assessment of the impact of this draft government decree on business activities. Amcham believes that some of the tariff items proposed in the draft contain goods that are not included in the minimum food basket and should be excluded. For example, it is proposed to exclude quail, duck, goose, turkey meat from the tariff position "0207" (poultry meat); in position “0303” (frozen fish), leave only a few basic positions, excluding, for example, red frozen fish, which is not included in the minimum consumer basket; from position "1701" (beet sugar), exclude powdered sugar, brown sugar, portioned sugar (lump, in sticks, etc.). Amcham draws attention to the fact that the authors of the project refer to the future transition from an instrument for regulating prices for socially significant goods to strengthening the mechanisms for providing social assistance. However, the World Bank's Moldova Policy Notes 2021 report cited by Amcham says it's not entirely clear how the government monitors socially significant goods prices or verifies the compliance of companies' spending. In addition, despite the control of trade markups, the average cost of some socially significant goods is 53% higher than in other countries. Amcham believes that the proposed draft resolution cannot be adopted, as it affects both public and private interests. Recall that the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Economy have prepared a draft to expand the list of socially significant goods, proposing to include bone-in pork, poultry meat, frozen fish, beet sugar, raw pasta, fresh chicken eggs, fresh potatoes, fresh onions, fresh white cabbage, fresh carrots and beets; and iodized salt intended for human consumption. Currently, by decision of the Commission for Emergency Situations, from March 1 until the end of the state of emergency, these categories of goods are included in the list of socially significant goods, and a limited trade markup is applied to them. Recall that, according to the government decree, socially significant goods is sold at purchase / selling prices with a trade markup not exceeding 20%, with the exception of bread and rolls, for which the trade markup does not exceed 10%. At the same time, socially significant goods, both imported and domestic, subject to processing in commercial units, are sold using an aggregate trade markup that does not exceed 40% of the purchase/sale price. // 03.05.2022 — InfoMarket.
