Minister Salem before the People's Assembly: Intensive efforts to increase the income of mill and oven workers

Damascus-SANA

The People's Assembly, in its second session of the fifth regular session of the third legislative session, held today under the chairmanship of Hammouda Sabbagh, Speaker of the Assembly, discussed the performance of the Ministry of Internal Trade and Consumer Protection and issues related to its work.

And the Minister of Internal Trade and Consumer Protection, Dr. Amr Salem, indicated during a presentation on the ministry’s work that a phone number has been allocated to receive calls from citrus farmers regarding the purchase and marketing of their crop, indicating that the price of 750 Syrian pounds per kilogram of oranges of excellent quality in the Syrian trade halls has been set, which is The same price was paid to the farmer, while the purchase will continue until the end of the season.

Minister Salem pointed out that the ministry is working on maintaining ovens and has put in place a full study to supply private ovens with two-thirds of the quantity of yeast, and work is continuing to achieve the required quality in the loaf of bread, noting that it has started receiving approval requests from owners of fixed grocers in Damascus and its countryside to distribute bread through them to citizens, and it will be starting from the month Next, the bread will be delivered to cars equipped for this, after the bread has been cooled in the ovens to maintain its quality.

Minister Salem indicated that the ministry is currently receiving requests from poultry owners to sell their production of chicken to Syria for trade at reasonable profits and to be provided to citizens at prices lower than the markets, stressing the continuation of monitoring, follow-up, conducting patrols and organizing seizures against all violators and price manipulators, whether they are sellers of shop owners or workers in Syrian Trade Showrooms, bearing in mind that the Ministry has reactivated the Competition and Anti-Monopoly Authority to be a supplement to its work.

In their interventions, a number of council members demanded tightening supply control over violators of public transport bus owners who do not abide by the transport tariffs set by the internal trade directorates and achieving justice in distributing food supplies to all halls and increasing the quantities of citrus in the halls of Aleppo Governorate.

Some members called for activating the ministry’s role in protecting the citizen from fraud and monopoly and inflicting deterrent penalties against those caught violating the prices and specifications of materials, as well as holding the corrupt accountable, whether in mills, ovens or Syrian trade halls, improving the quality of bread and increasing the allocations of flour ration for a number of bakeries in the governorates, such as Homs, Daraa and Tartous, taking into account the issue of supply and demand for foodstuffs and consumer goods in the markets, reducing the price of broilers, re-examining the cost of imported raw materials for poultry farming, providing Al-Hasakah Governorate with food supplies, especially sugar, and providing the Directorate of Internal Trade in it with mechanisms to enhance its oversight work.

A number of members stressed that most food and consumer goods do not carry labels that clearly include the price, and this requires intensifying efforts to monitor the supply of shops and markets and tighten control over gas stations, wondering why the establishment of popular markets has stopped.

A number of members believed that the subsidy should be distributed as a cash allowance to citizens through the localization of the electronic card in approved bank accounts to prevent fraud and corruption and liberalize the market so that competition plays a role in reducing prices, stressing the need to increase incentives and the nature of work for workers of Syrian bakeries and halls of trade and the rehabilitation and restoration of mills with old equipment and supplies .

In response to the interventions and questions of the council members, Minister Salem indicated that the ministry has a priority to restore the kilns that were damaged as a result of the old and the war, while the Latakia Mill is currently being rehabilitated and equipped, where work has been stopped, knowing that it has been operating since 1957, pointing out that there is no possibility at present to convert The reserve ovens have turned into general ovens as a result of the lack of administrative cadres, adding that we hope that the central competition being prepared will cover some of the Ministry's needs of cadres.

Minister Salem stressed that there are intensive efforts by the ministry to increase the income of mill and oven workers and to prepare a distinct incentive system to encourage work in them, stressing that all interventions and questions of council members are of interest and follow-up by the ministry, and all written memoranda submitted by them will be duly answered.

The session, which was attended by Minister of State for People's Assembly Affairs Abdullah Abdullah, was adjourned to 12 noon tomorrow, Tuesday.

Waseem El-Adawy and Louay Houssam