After inspections determine whether the price hikes are realistic, the Government will publish a list of all companies that artificially increased prices, said Deputy PM for Economic Affairs Fatmir Bytyqi on Monday, writes MIA.
Deputy PM Bytyqi believes that certain products have had an artificial price increase, such as pasta, for which the profit margins jumped from 4% to 72.5% in two days.
“I said last week that the speed at which prices are going up is astounding. In just two days, the profit margins for pasta jumped from 4% on May 31 to 72.5%, which means that the citizens are paying 65% more for pasta from a specific brand,” Bytyqi said in response to a reporter’s question after the visit to the Tab Mak factory in Probishtip.
During this week, he added, there will be another meeting with the Federation of Trade Unions (SSM), which has announced a general strike on June 22 because their demands were unfulfilled. Bytyqi said dialogue continued and unresolved issues were to be addressed.
“We have open issues with SSM. We’re not just talking about wage alignment and their demands for linear wage increases, we’re also talking about the wage growth methodologies and the Law on Wages that should once and for all solve the issues of increase, effectiveness, efficacy. As long as there are open questions, we shouldn’t call strikes but sit at the table. We will meet with them this week in order to discuss these matters,” Bytyqi said.
