As the new school year starts today, calls have been made for relevant government departments to monitor the prices of school uniforms and local exercise books as there are indications that the mark up prices are excessive.
Surveys conducted reveal that the school uniform prices continue to remain high and many parents are calling on authorities to ensure that excessive mark ups are not placed on uniforms.
The Consumer Council of Fiji has also said that a survey conducted by the council clearly shows an increase in the price of locally produced exercise books.
Council CEO, Premila Kumar said the survey found that of the 85 types of exercise books surveyed, 30 percent or 26 types of books had price increases compared to prices gathered in the same period in 2014 and immediately after the budget announcement in November last year.
The council is disappointed that some retailers had increased the prices on some locally produced exercise books such as Oxford and I-vola.
After the survey, the council contacted the major exercise book manufacturers who confirmed that they had not increased the wholesale price of the locally produced books.
The Consumer Council said the government had introduced 32 percent duty on imported exercise books as announced in the 2015 National Budget, assuring people that this would not result in an increase in the prices of locally made exercise books.
Kumar said when the retailers were contacted on why the prices have increased for the locally produced exercise books, one retailer blamed his staff for putting the wrong price tag while another retailer gave excuses that they had dropped the price of text books and they increased the price of exercise books to recover the cost.
Education Minister, Doctor Mahendra Reddy said he will comment on the issue later today.
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