The Center for Combating Economic Crimes and Corruption (CCCEC) today launched a hotline to help citizens report cases where retailers exceed the limited markup of the so-called socially important goods like bread and sugar, Info-Prim Neo reports. The phone number is 257257 and people are invited to call round-the-clock. CCCEC head Sergiu Puscuta informed that following a raid consisting of over 200 inspections performed on Thursday at entities selling sugar, anticorruption officers discovered 53 cases of violations of the markup laws. According to the legislation, the amount added to the cost price in fixing the selling price of sugar must not exceed 20 percent. As a result, transgressors will have to pay 100,000 lei in fines. Speaking of the three districts where the Government said the price of sugar was still exceeding the amount allowed by law, Puscuta said the inspections revealed that in Falesti and Ungheni sugar prices got stable, ranging from 10.68 to 12.50 lei per kg. In Calarasi, however, sugar sells at 13 lei, which is above the limit, and fines will follow. Puscuta also stated he intended to advise the Government to amend the Administrative Contravention Code in order to double the fines for breaking the markup rules and to suspend the activity of backsliders for a period of up to 6 months. Sergiu Puscuta declined to say whether oil, wheat and rice, which have seen price hikes lately, would cheapen too, but informed that anticorruption officers were inspecting the reasonableness of the hikes at the level of producers and wholesalers. The goods that have limits on markup, that is the so-called socially important goods, include bread (max. 8 percent), drugs (max. 40 percent), diary products, sugar, oil, construction materials, laundry detergents, etc (max. 20 percent).