The Consumer Goods and Service Prices Committee yesterday imposed stringent control measures on sugar trading in an effort to solve the current shortage and halt skyrocketing prices.
The committee, chaired by Commerce Minister Porntiva Nakasai, agreed that the government must closely monitor the sugar-trading system because misuse of sugar quotas and smuggling had caused both the current shortage and the hike in prices.
Porntiva said stringent control measures would be implemented immediately. Millers and traders who fail to observe the measures will be punished under the provisions of the Price and Service Prices Control Act.
Under the control measures, millers and traders must inform the government of stockpiles, production rates, domestic sales and export volumes every month. As a first step, they must provide details of all sugar transactions in the seven days following announcement of the measures.
Millers and traders must submit lists to the panel of all sugar buyers who purchase more than 10,000 kilograms. They must also separate their sales of these sugar stocks into two lots per month.
Any traders who wish to transfer more than 1,000kg of sugar to 107 districts in 24 provinces that border on neighbouring countries must get permission from the committee to do so.
The committee also agreed to establish recommended prices for sugar around the country. Retailers will be limited to a 5-per-cent mark up on the recommended price. However, if any provinces wish to sell sugar at prices higher than the mark up limit, the panel must allow them to do so. The maximum recommended price is Bt26 per kg.
Millers or traders who fail to comply with the measures will be subject to five years in jail, a Bt100,000 fine, or both.
The domestic sugar shortage has become significantly worse since early this year because prices in Thailand are much lower than those in nearby countries. The government has controlled the retail price of sugar at Bt23.50 per kg, while the price in neighbouring countries has surged to between Bt25 and Bt33.
Porntiva said the stringent measures should effectively solve sugar smuggling, as well as preventing sugar users from misusing sugar from quota allocations.
She said the ministry had received reports that some food manufacturers had been using sugar from quota A, which was allocated for domestic supply, because its price was cheaper than that in other quotas that were intended for industrial supplies and exports.
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