Ministry takes sugar off watch list

The committee in April allowed the retail price of sugar to be raised by Bt5 per pack.

As the voluntary price freeze on 200 products has come to an end, the Commerce Ministry is closely monitoring their retail prices to ensure consumers are getting a fair deal.

According to the Internal Trade Department, the ministry has kept 17 products on its sensitive list, which are monitored daily as they are essential goods.

The 17 products are rice, powdered milk, fresh milk, drinking yoghurt, cooking gas, diesel and benzene oil, car batteries, chemical fertiliser, animal feed, electric wires, reformed steel, steel rods, steel sheets, chromium plate, tin plate and cement.

Ready-to-eat foods, non-dairy creamer, condensed milk, flour and vegetable oil remain on the priority watch list.

Products on the ministry's standard watch list are eggs, chicken, detergents, soap, shampoo, body lotion, toothpaste, seasoning sauces, plastic bags, telephone cards, school uniforms and gold ornaments.

A ministry source said yesterday that the ministry would closely monitor all product-price moves to protect consumers from rises in the cost of living.

Meanwhile, sticky-rice farmers in the North are likely to suffer for a long time as the government could not find a way to help them get paid by a miller for their crop.

Deputy Commerce Minister Banyin Tangpakorn said the government must seek the Cabinet's nod on how to help the farmers.