OPPOSITION parties yesterday accused the government of sitting idly by while consumers were being ripped off on an unprecedented scale.
Former coalition partner AKEL, which took a told-you-so approach, said many businesses started increasing their prices from the end of May and had continued in June and July.
DISY accused the government of abandoning the consumer while the accused both parties of electioneering.
AKEL made a lot of noise earlier in the year over the adoption of the euro, saying it would lead to price rises. The party wanted it postponed for a year.
Instead of adding their annual inflationary price increases next January, businesses were advised to add them on before euro entry so consumers would not attribute the annual increases to the euro changeover.
However it appears a lot of shops and businesses are taking the advice as a free-for-all on prices before eurozone entry with most consumers reporting increases on basics of anything between ten and 20 cents per item. Inflation is running at just over two per cent but people are noticing price hikes of 30 per cent or more in some cases.
Even if price hikes are being implemented now, there is still a danger that many will still be rounded up when the euro comes into force despite a plea by government and business organisations to round them down rather than up.
AKEL spokesman Andros Kyprianou told a news conference yesterday the recent price hikes were a pretext so businesses could say they were not profiteering during the euro changeover on January 1 when people would be extra sensitive about price increases.
“A simple analysis of the Consumer Price Index proves that a lot of people have gone ahead with increases in May, June and July so in January they can claim they have kept prices at the same level,” said Kyprianou.
Kyprianou said AKEL had warned of arbitrary price increases before the euro was introduced, although he did admit that a number of the current increases could be put down to the global price of cereals.
“But this does not justify the increases that we are seeing now on basic goods such as bread, milk and meat,” said Kyprianou. He said they were above and beyond the increases he internationally.
“These increase are just squeezing consumers financially and driving more people under the poverty line,” Kyprianou added.
DISY deputy Lefteris Christoforou also held a news conference yesterday about prices saying the government had abandoned the consumer entirely.
Christoforou said the increases being seen on the market recently were unjustified.
“It is not the first time in the last five years we see this kind of profiteering without any measures being taken to deter it,” he said.
“It’s not enough that wages have remained stagnant but are now being eroded daily forcing people into dire economic straits,” he said.
Both parties called on the government to do something.
AKEL suggested the government should approach the EU to allow some subsidisation for basic foodstuffs, while DISY said an official consumer protection agency should be set up. The current one is non-governmental.
“Until now, the government has not done anything to monitor the market. As an excuse, they just keep saying it’s a free market economy,” Christoforou said.
Government spokesman Vassilis Palmas said: “In a free economy system the consumer has the choice of selecting what products it will buy and from whom.”
Palmas said he was not surprised at the comments by the two parties given that it was an election period, and added that the Commerce Ministry already had an official consumer protection department.
In recent weeks a mystery message is being spread by word of mouth and by email calling for consumers to “go on strike” on September 3 to protest against rip-off prices.
The origins of the message is unknown but it calls on all consumers to stop “acting like lambs to the slaughter” and not to buy anything, eat in restaurants, spend money on entertainment and not to use petrol stations for one day.
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