Filat to personally oversee price developments

Prime Minster Vlad Filat instructed the Cabinet at a meeting today he must be informed permanently about any price developments and insisted that he would personally oversee this key domain, Info-Prim Neo reports. Valeriu Cosarciuc, Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry, informed the Cabinet's meeting that prices on chicken meat has dropped lately by 5% and on eggs by 14%, and the downward trend continues. At the same time, prices on dairy products have risen by 3% and on sugar by 14%. Buckwheat and rice also grew in price. Customs Service chief Tudor Balitchi said that judging by the customs value of these products, there were no reasons for prices to rise. In the case of buckwheat and sugar the customs values even decreased. Nicolae Platon, the chief of the Tax Inspectorate, said the Inspectorate detected numerous cases where pricing rules were violated, including the rule that sets a fixed markup of 20% on a number of products. As intermediaries often inflate prices, the Inspectorate will continue to carry out inspections and counter this practice. Viorel Chetraru, the director of the Center for Combating Corruption and Economic Crimes, says many firms use to cache their products into deposits in order to boost demand and sell them later at much higher prices.