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Fiji Food, Fuel Prices to Fall From 1 January As Tax Reduced

Posted on: Saturday, 31 December 2005, 06:00 CST

Text of report by Fiji newspaper Fiji Times website on 31 December

From midnight tonight the price of fuel and basic food items will fall. Fuel prices will drop by as much as 31 cents a litre following a downward spiral in the landed cost of the products.

The reduction in cost of six basic food items is the result of the removal of value added tax announced in the 2006 budget.

The Prices and Incomes Board has warned it will monitor these prices through shop inspections and by attending to complaints. The board said overcharging was an offence under the Counter-Inflation Act.

The cost of motor spirit has fallen from 1.83 dollars per litre to 1.72 dollars; premix outboard fuel from 1.87 dollars to 1.66 dollars; diesel from 1.48 dollars to 1.45 dollars and kerosene from 1.51 dollars to 1.20 dollars.

"Effective from Sunday, 1 January, pump prices of petroleum will decrease following reductions in landed cost of the products," the board said.

"Further reductions in the retail prices of premix outboard fuel and kerosene is the result of the reduction on the retail percentage mark-up, removal of duty and value added tax on kerosene. Consumers on Vanua Levu and in other centres should expect slightly higher prices as result of cartage and freight differentials.

"Retailers of premix and kerosene are advised the retail mark-up for both products is now fixed at 10 per cent with effect from 1 January, 2006."

VAT will be removed from kerosene, flour, sharps, edible oil, rice, kerosene, tinned fish, tea and powdered milk.

The PIB said the maximum retail prices of flour, sharps, Punjas and Bushells tea were under fixed price control. And the new retail prices of tinned fish, edible oil, powdered milk and kerosene must be calculated using the into-store cost formula based on invoices of existing stock, the board said.

The maximum retail percentage mark-up for tinned fish is 13 per cent; edible oil (15 per cent); rice (15 per cent); powdered milk (13 per cent); baby milk (15 per cent) and kerosene (10 per cent).

Consumers are urged to contact any PIB office if they believe they have been over-charged or the prices of basic food items have not gone down by 1 January, 2006.

Source: BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific

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