Damascus-Sana
In its second session of the twelfth regular session of the second legislative session, headed by Hammouda Sabbagh, Speaker of the Council, the People's Assembly discussed the performance of the Ministry of Internal Trade and Consumer Protection and issues related to its work.
In his speech to him, Sabbagh stressed the need to meet the needs of citizens and strictness in punishing all those who tampered with the livelihood and work to secure foodstuffs at the appropriate price, calling for a study of the mechanisms for distributing materials in order to preserve the dignity of the citizen and take appropriate measures to protect the consumer and investigate corruption cases wherever they exist.
In their interventions, Council members called for the development of control mechanisms, the promotion of a complaint culture, the improvement of the quality of a loaf of bread, setting a specific and reduced price for fodder and poultry, installing daily laborers in bakeries and mills, tightening control and supply control for wholesalers and sellers, and finding an effective mechanism to reduce price increases and work to reduce them and increase the number of subsidized materials for citizens On the smart card and end the monopoly of materials and goods and enhance competitiveness.
Council members stressed the importance of increasing the number of Syrian showrooms and outlets for trade in the Hasaka governorate and the eastern and southern Aleppo countryside, as well as in the liberated areas in Idlib, increasing the allocations of basic materials, the obligation to punish all those who manipulate the citizens ’sake, fighting corruption, increasing flour allocations to bakeries, and providing support with basic materials for the families of the martyrs and the wounded.
A number of members called for speeding up the issuance of new amendments to Law No. 14 of 2015 to compel sellers to set pricing for materials, expand the list of items in the smart card, and prosecute wholesalers who refuse to give invoices and coordination between the ministry and the ministries of interior and justice to control borders to prevent smuggling of materials.
Members of the Council pointed to the importance of tightening control over gas distributors and securing them, monitoring the prices of vegetables and fruits in the Syrian galleries for trade and solving the problem of the shortage in feed.
Council members pointed out the need to take measures and find a civilized method that secures citizens ’access to basic materials and the Syrian purchase of trade products from the producer and farms directly and not from merchants.
At the beginning of the session, Minister of Internal Trade and Consumer Protection, Dr. Atef Al-Naddaf, explained that the Ministry has set the process of distributing flour quantities to public bakeries, and there are about two thousand private bakeries where flour is distributed and tons of flour are sold to them by 18 thousand pounds while its price in the informal market is more than 300 thousand Lira indicating that the ministry opened 227 new halls belonging to the Syrian Trade last year, in addition to the one thousand existing galleries previously held by it, and is seeking to create halls in ministries, administrative units and municipalities in the governorates to provide basic materials for employees and running mobile cars to increase horizontal spread.
Minister Al-Naddaf revealed that the Ministry, in cooperation with the Ministry of Economy and Foreign Trade, signed a contract to import 40,000 tons of sugar, and there is a contract under signature for importing rice and other basic materials, while the central bank is financing the imported basic materials, stressing that the ministry will later increase the number of supported materials on the smart card and its quantities such as Oil, tuna, and sardines that were signed for import.
Regarding the seizure, Minister Al-Naddaf pointed out that the number of food seizures reached 41 thousand adjustments last year, compared to 31 thousand seizures in the previous year. 17 thousand samples were examined in the ministry’s laboratories, stressing the importance of strengthening the culture of complaint among citizens, pointing out that work is underway to amend the law No. 14 of 2015 to protect the consumer by toughening penalties for violators as well as amending the Consumer Cooperation Law to take advantage of consumer cooperative societies to support the Syrian business for trade.
In his response to the interventions of the council members, Minister Al-Naddaf indicated that the ministry had previously taken a decision to withdraw all the halls of the Syrian Corporation for Trade from investment and make them subject to the management of the ministry in accordance with the laws and regulations in force because many of the investment contracts are irregular indicating that the automation project contracted by the ministry is being implemented With the aim of developing the Syrian business mechanism for trade.
Minister Al-Naddaf pointed out that setting strategies requires stability on a solid ground, but in light of the circumstances of a fierce military and economic war, we need emergency solutions according to the changes being worked on throughout the 24 hours, indicating that there are countries in the region that are allowed to import and there are no sanctions or customs The prices have increased twice and more, indicating that some exploiters and crisis dealers smuggle a number of basic materials that Syria imports into neighboring countries.
The session, which was attended by Minister of State for People's Assembly Affairs Abdullah Abdullah, was adjourned until 12 noon tomorrow, Tuesday.