Gov’t sets timeline for price tag on goods

The Government of Liberia through the Ministry of Commerce and Industry disclosed Wednesday, 27 June that from this month to 1 July, all goods must have a price tag indicating cost and expiration time.

“We’re giving every business owner from now to the first of July to have a price tag on their various goods,” Commerce Inspector General Ms. Josephine Davis said Wednesday, 27 June on ECOWAS Radio in Monrovia.

She says failure on the part of businesses to do so, inspection team will get on the field to fine them. Ms. Davis says the issue of price tag on every goods will demonstrate the quality of goods and give customers and consumers the conviction that they are good for human consumption.

According to the Commerce Inspector General, there were 25 businesses that the Ministry of Commerce has fined for doing bad business in the country, noting that the inspection team is there to ensure that businesses here are doing the right thing.

She says warehouses will be inspected to ensure that goods have price tag, and calls call on the public to help the inspection team by reporting businesses and supermarkets that are in the habit of selling expired goods to consumers.

Ms. Davis notes that they have a laboratory to test goods to know whether they are expired or not, saying at times importers know that their goods have a short period but they would still bring them here, change their stickers and the expiry date.

“When we got on the field our people thought we were hurting them, but now they have realized that we are working in the interest of the people,” she says.Ms. Davis cites an example when the inspection team seized about 135 cartons of expired fish from Abijoudi Store, and also closed Diamond Food because it was involved in selling expired goods to the public.

She warns that expired goods on the market pose serious health problems to humans, telling radio audience how she always tell her team that their inspection is to save life. She says when this task is compromised, it might harm inspectors as well because they have families that go to the market.

By Lewis S. Teh–Edited by Winston W. Parley