No word yet on whether price compact will be extended

By Emmanuel Joseph

Barbadian consumers should not expect any automatic price changes on items in the supermarket that were included in a special price cap arrangement with the private sector. 

On Tuesday, the day the social compact was scheduled to expire, the Government and retailers continued to explore a possible extension to the deal beyond the original January 31 deadline.

The Barbados Chamber of Commerce says it is waiting on word from the Government team on how the new compact arrangement would be implemented since many businesses reported that the original arrangement did not work in their favour.

“I assure the public that the markups will not change automatically tomorrow and that as you go into the supermarkets, the major distributors have agreed that they will maintain the same markups on the products as they were in the compact even up until the new compact comes into place,” Branker declared.

The social compact that capped prices of more than 40 supermarket items expired on Tuesday and the Chamber confirmed that it had agreed during recent negotiations with the Government to extend the arrangement under certain conditions.

“We are willing to go into a new arrangement which would then expand the compact, but with a new arrangement,” BCCI president Anthony Branker told Barbados TODAY on Tuesday.

“The Government understands our position…understands that it was quite burdensome on some of the parties, and therefore they have heard our concerns and are to get back to us,” the spokesman for the business sector stated.

Anthony Branker

He made it clear that there is no official position at the moment because everything has not yet been confirmed.

“We have been negotiating with Senior Minister [Kerrie] Symmonds on this matter and we have laid some proposals before Government, so we are waiting for them to come back to us.”

In late December 2022, the BCCI and the Barbados Private Sector Association (BPSA) said they were open to discussions with the Government on extending the compact signed last July to keep stable pricing on 47 items for a six-month period.

However, chairman of the BPSA Trisha Tannis reported that several businesses had recorded some losses as a result of the measure and they would have to determine whether they could afford to maintain prices at the current level.                                                 

“I can’t speak for all businesses. We do know that it came at significant sacrifice to them. It is not even necessarily an issue or a matter of if the Government is going to extend it. It is a matter where all parties have to come back to the table to see if any of the parties can extend it,” she told Barbados TODAY.                                                                                                         

“You would know that it has come at significant costs to the Government. It has come at significant costs to the private sector.”                                                                                           

In addition to the compact on some goods, the Value Added Tax (VAT) was taken off a number of items and duty was removed from some citrus items.

Prime Minister Mia Mottley also announced that the Government would cap prices on gasoline and diesel, from August 19, 2022, to January 31, 2023, as part of efforts to shield Barbadians from the rising cost of fuel.                                                           

emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb