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The period of preparation for the start of school coincides with the winter “mortar” season, which makes citizens multiply five or six times during this special season to evade reality and prepare their children for the upcoming school year. The prices of stationery and other supplies (bags, shoes, clothes..) have increased significantly, and here is a question: How will “Abu Al-Ayyal” cope with this situation? Where are the “charitable” organizations? What role do the authorities play in curbing the greed of businessmen and controlling their emotions? !
Burning Embers
“Umm Mohammed”, a family of three children, spent most of this summer in the village with her family, forced to stay in the city, like all families waiting for the end of school, but the suffocating economic situation forced them to stay in the city. She put her two underage children to work in the nearby “Comji” to educate them in crafts and earn money to pay for school fees, while “Abu Hassan”, a father of four children, is in the basic class, preparatory class and upper school class. According to his description, he is disgusted by the “embers of prices that light the hearts of people before the wallet”, because the price of the primary school “Maryul” reaches 150,000 liras, and the price of the shirt in the preparatory school is as high as 175,000 liras, not to mention the price of pants, bags, stationery, buying books, etc., that is, the preliminary estimate is that it will take about two million to prepare, and his income does not exceed the price of two bags. He sighed, as if he was carrying a mountain on his shoulders, “Leave it to God”, and the third secondary school student married “Nauras”. M” studied and worked in a restaurant in Old Damascus during the previous school year, earning no more than 450,000 liras a month, and today he will continue at the same rate to reduce the burden on his parents, while “Salma” was adopted. H” recycles the children’s old clothes, as well as those given to her by relatives, in order to prepare the minimum supplies necessary for the school year for her three children.
Reduce broker profits
The concept of price control is different for consumers than for importers or sellers, as economist George Khuzam explains, for consumers, price control means reducing the profits of the middlemen, from importers all the way to the final consumer. For sellers, it means reducing import costs, taxes, and direct and indirect expenses, while here customers believe that the increase in prices is due to increased profits in the middle circles of the market, as the saying goes (merchants are immoral), which shows a great ignorance of the market mechanism, knowing that merchants are the only ones who provide goods and services to customers and want to reduce prices to increase sales and make greater profits.
No matter where it comes from!
Hozam said one way to reduce the price of stationery is to free the import of stationery from the Central Bank’s import financing platform, which means allowing importers to import and finance their imports in US dollars from places other than the Central Bank and then wait for months to get US dollar financing when they need to import, which means allowing them to finance their imports from their own sources without asking the source of US dollar financing, so the quantity of stationery sold will not fall compared to the quantity. The demand increases because the quantity sold in the market increases and the price falls, because the work of the platform has slowed down severely, accompanied by the depletion of imports in the market, the quantity falls, no matter how low the US dollar exchange rate is, the supply will increase and the price will rise.
Barely enough
Khozam, in his speech, pointed out that due to the high import costs of 35% through the Central Bank’s Import Financing Platform, all goods, not just stationery, are sold at high prices compared to neighboring countries, so merchants import cheap goods to reduce costs in order to reduce prices, noting that the association cannot help families by purchasing school supplies because its financial resources are barely enough to provide food baskets and some medical expenses and medicines to those in need, and any funds for the purchase of school supplies will be borne by the government at the cost of other charities.
Poor quality
The Minister of Consumer Protection, Abdul Razzaq Habza, does not deny that the price of school supplies, such as school bags, stationery and uniforms, has increased significantly in exchange for their low quality, since the prices vary for each school stage, and students at the basic education stage need 1 million Syrian pounds to complete their studies, while the amount prepared for secondary school students increases, and the amount at the high school level doubles, taking into account the increase in demand, reaching 5 million Syrian pounds at the university level. A family with two children needs 2 million liras, which is disastrous for them, because it coincides with the season of supply and reception. In winter, this amount increases, because the existing school supplies are of poor quality and cannot meet the needs of the child for a whole year, due to their poor quality, since most of them are made of “linoleum”. Therefore, given the limited income, citizens have two options: either not to educate their children or to buy second-hand supplies, although the latter are very expensive, and all this is due to lack. In practice, we do not see them competing with merchants. If they take over, they will rent to merchants, thus forming a middleman, although the profit is very low, so a middleman is formed. Costs increase.
For consultation only
Regarding the role of consumer protection in monitoring the prices of school supplies, which vary from merchant to merchant, Habuza explained that this is at the heart of the work of the Supply Directorate, which takes samples from the market, states the cost, determines the price. Cost, and sends it to the executive office of the province, which periodically takes random samples from the market and studies it, along with the cost data, in the presence of craft representatives, and if the price is contrary to the existing cost, a supply control is organized, similar to the pricing of shaving and ironing, noting that the Consumer Protection Association refuses to accept differences and increases. and writes to the relevant authorities if prices increase, he regrets that the law does not include the members of the Consumer Protection Association in the Price Committee, because it is used as an administrative procedure and is not approved. The Association requires that it has an official status in the Pricing Committee, both in the Board and in the Ministry, and the Association has requested and is requesting a representative in the Committee. He has a binding opinion and is not just for consultation. The role of the Association is to monitor and follow up, and then liaise with the relevant authorities.
There are other options
Speaking about the Consumer Protection Patrols and their role in monitoring prices, especially as the start of the school term approaches, Nael Asmandar, Director of the Internal Trade and Consumer Protection Department in Damascus Village, confirmed that they instructed the patrols to strengthen control over places and shops that sell goods that produce school supplies (stationery, clothes, shoes, school bags) and ensure product quality, based on cost and quality data, and organized several forensic arrests targeting consumers, taking samples for withdrawal analysis and price research.
Regarding the feeling of merchants selling the same material from one store to another, Ismandar said: “We are dealing with the problem and organizing control, but this is done after verifying the citizens who bought the product, indicating that the prices are different.” He pointed out that since these products are not at the same level in terms of specifications, there is a higher level because there are substitutes in the Syrian trade hall, and the discount rate is as high as 25%. The annual stationery exhibition will open today and tomorrow, mainly concentrated in the old exhibition city.
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