The Parliamentary Committee for Economy, Finance and Budget supported today the Bill on temporary measures to limit the prices of products of special importance for people's life and health, and tomorrow it should be adopted by the Legislative Committee, after which it will be forwarded to the Parliament for adoption.
That draft law was prepared by the previous Government, that is, the Ministry of Economic Development (MER), and the new Government decided at the session on May 5 that it would stick with the proposed act.
The law envisages the creation of a legal framework for limiting prices in cases of serious inflationary risks, as well as market disturbances, and a by-law will determine the list of products to which the law applies, with the obligation to review the decision every three months.
The newly elected Minister of Economic Development, Goran Đurović, said at the committee that the products that will be on the list will depend on the Government's assessment at the given moment, and that the measures that the Government can prescribe in order to limit prices relate to determining the maximum retail price, fixed price products and margins.
MPs from both the government and the opposition have assessed that the adoption of this law was delayed due to high inflation. They said that they will vote for this law, but they doubt its implementation, because the law does not contain concrete measures, that is, the category of products to which it applies, and they blame the government for not yet preparing secondary legal acts.
Social Democrat MP Boris Mugoša said that adequate inspection control over shops will not be carried out successfully, and he proposes to introduce a categorical list of products on which the price can be limited, such as children's nutrition, hygiene products and the like.
Minister Đurović said that at this moment it is better to have a wider possibility for the Government to subsequently determine the list of products, so that they do not end up in a situation where there is disruption on the market of certain products that are not taxatively included in the law, but also that he will carefully consider the parties' amendments to this law.
Damir Šehović from the SD reminded the statement of Đurović, in a televised debate with former minister Jakov Milatović, when he claimed that this law was unenforceable and counterproductive. He asked him how it would be applied now, and why he accepted it without modification.
Đurović said that his role now is different than when he was vice president of the party (URA), and that he now has a certain amount of responsibility.
"At that time I did not know the details of this law, only when I took office did I become familiar with the law. A colleague suggested to me, and I was not informed at the time, that this law provides the possibility of price restrictions, and that it is present in the countries of the region and Europe of the Union. I found it appropriate to agree with this bill and to provide the state with that one mechanism that I hope there will be no need to implement," he said.
The MPs asked Đurović how he would influence so that a small number of companies would not end up in a situation of large losses due to limited product prices, to which he replied that he would determine the maximum product price and margin in agreement with businessmen, so that they would not be in a loss.
"Let's see what the models are so that we don't destroy the economy and help the citizens," said Đurović.
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