Papathanasis: The household basket has reduced the average cost by at least 20%

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“Overall, the operation of the Basket has shown that it has restrained prices. From the beginning of its operation until today, the average value of the Basket has decreased by approximately 20%” said Mr. Papathanasis

From the beginning of its operation until today, the Household Basket, has reduced prices by at least 20%, he said on average the Deputy Minister of Development and Investments, Nikos Papathanasis and added that the approval of the Competition Commission is expected so that for some of the items included in the Household Basket, at least one branded product and one private label product must be included.

Nikos Papathanasis, today visited stores of the “Lidl” and “Market In” supermarket chains, as last week they recorded the biggest reduction in the prices of products in the Household Basket. The Deputy Minister was accompanied by the Secretary General of Trade and Consumer Protection, Sotiris Anagnostopoulos and the commander of the Interagency Market Control Unit (DIMEA), Charalambos Melissinos.

As Mr. Papathanasis mentioned: “Overall, the Basket operation has shown to hold prices down. Since its launch until today, the average value of the Basket has decreased by approximately 20%. At the same time, throughout this period, DIMEA continuously carries out checks, both sample and following complaints, in all supermarket chains. For the protection of consumers, the Consumer line also operates, at 1520, as well as the new website for submitting complaints, kataggelies.gov.gr, where our fellow citizens can report, either by name or anonymously, any practice that is inconsistent with good commercial practices »

The deputy minister added that Greece is the only country in Europe that has a state tool, the e-consumer, where citizens can find product prices daily and in real time. He also recalled that a ceiling has been established on the profit rate, in line with the profit rate that existed in the summer of 2021, a time of normality, which companies cannot exceed.

“So we continue with a package of measures to protect consumers” said Mr. Papathanasis and added that “to these measures will soon be added the market pass, volwhich will provide additional support to consumers facing this wave of outsourced accuracy. The market pass let me remind you that 10% of their purchases will be returned to our fellow citizens”.

Fines are imposed on approximately 6%-8% of those audited

Mr. Papathanasis also noted that “out of the checks carried out, approximately 6%-8% result in the imposition of a fine”. “And since a lot has been said recently, let’s clarify that during the inspection process we reduce the unit price of the product and the weight” he pointed out and added: “But we should say that most of the chains have been harmonized with the instructions and as we observe there are few cases of irregularities”.

“The controls are continuous and they are also electronic now” he emphasized and noted: “We are moving into a new era. Let’s also remember that we have created an entire control service that did not exist before. If you compare, you will find that during the SYRIZA government, there were zero controls, in zero places with zero personnel. On the contrary today, we have thousands of controls, millions in fines and a daily presence everywhere.”

For his part, the commander of the Interagency Market Control Unit (DIMEA), Charalambos Melissinos, noted that control crews are in the market every day and check the prices of supermarkets and other companies that are part of the food chain.

“In the last period, from the checks we carry out, it appears that the problems observed at the beginning of the operation of the Basket, in terms of marking and adequacy, have been normalized and few relevant violations are now detected. At the same time, through daily checks, we also monitor the prices, in order to identify the phenomena of profiteering” said Mr. Melissinos.

Finally, the general secretary Sotiris Anagnostopoulos noted that “the success of the project seems to find imitators in other countries of the European Union, such as in France”.

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