Shopkeepers Fined for Speculation in Tete, Central Mozambique

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Shopkeepers Fined for Speculation in Tete, Central Mozambique

1:40 CAT | 08 Jan 2016

In file Club of Mozambique / A view of Tete city, capital of Tete province.

The National Inspectorate of Economic Activities (INAE) has fined several shops in the western Mozambican province of Tete for price speculation and for selling goods past their expiry date during the festive season.

Speaking at a Wednesday press conference in Tete city, at which he drew up a balance sheet on the festive season, the INAE provincial delegate, Ofelio Jeremias, said that a quantity of expired goods (he did not give an exact amount) had been seized because they represented a threat to public health. The traders concerned had been fined a total of 893,000 meticais (slightly more than 20,000 US dollars at current exchange rates).

“When we received tip-offs from citizens, we went to the shops mentioned, and we found that the citizens were not lying”, said Jeremias. “We also saw that some products were sold without labels, and others with irregular labels”.

As for speculation, the Tete branch of INAE found cases of shops that had more than doubled the price of rice. In the offending shops, a 25 kilo sack of rice that had formerly been sold for 570 meticais now cost 1,200 meticais. These shopkeepers had also hiked the price of five litres of cooking oil from 230 to 400 meticais.

Jeremias said that goods sold at these exorbitant prices were immediately confiscated and the shopkeepers fined.

Over the festive season INAE inspected 157 shops, industries and restaurants. Jeremias believed the exercise had been positive, and had helped control prices. He claimed that, apart from the shops fined, prices had remained stable throughout the province.

“This was thanks to the work we did preparing for the festive season”, he said, “since we held meetings with wholesalers and retailers, both in Tete city and in the districts”.

Source: AIM