(LUSAKATIMES) Goods and service providers asked to reduce prices

Goods and service providers asked to reduce prices
December 29, 2008

Authorities in Northern Province have called on service providers and the business community in the region to immediately effect reduction of prices of goods and services in view of the drop in the cost of fuel.

Provincial Minister Charles Shawa said it was unfair for the business houses and transporters to continue charging exorbitant prices and fares on goods and services when the pump price of fuel has drastically reduced in the country.

Mr. Shawa said in Kasama yesterday that consumers needed to benefit from the reduction in the cost of fuel by accessing goods and services at a cheaper price.

The minister said there was need for the price of essential commodities such as mealie meal and transport to be reduced in the province so that people could afford them.

He said it was saddening to note that the price of mealie meal produced within the province was as expensive as that coming from outside the area.

Mr. Shawa has since urged local millers to make the price of their commodities affordable to the poor people.

He further explained that since the Food Reserve Agency (FRA) has reduced the price of maize, milling companies should also reciprocate the gesture by reducing the price of their mealie meal.

And Bus operators in Mungwi district in Northern province have been asked to reduce bus fares for the distance between Mungwi and Kasama district following the reduction of fuel pump prices by the Energy Regulation Board (ERB) last week.

The call to reduce the fares between Mungwi and Kasama was made by Zambia National Union of Teachers (ZNUT) District Secretary, Andrew Chungu today.

Mr. Chungu told ZANIS that minibus owners should urgently reduce fares from K8, 000 to K5 000, adding that failure to do so would mean stealing from the people.

Mr. Chungu, who praised government for reducing fuel prices, said the labour movement in the district was concerned about some transporters who did not want to reduce fares even after government has reduced fuel prices.

He wondered why transporters were not effecting the changes when they were always excited to increase the fares when the country experiences an increase in fuel prices.

He said bus operators in the district should not wait to be told to reduce fares because they were aware of the economic implications that their failure to do so might have on the district which he said was predominantly taken for peasant farmers.

The ZNUT district secretary also pointed out that since the Chitila-Kanyanta road has been rehabilitated, transporters should soon reduce the bus fares.

ZANIS/LS/KSH/ENDS