GREEDY eatery owners have raised food prices ahead of an anticipated reduction in VAT on meals.
Fiji’s government announced that from August 1, taxes on restaurant meals would drop from 15% to 12.5%.
But a survey by the Consumer Council of Fiji showed that those businesses had pre-emptively raised prices in order to benefit from the tax reduction.
The Council surveyed 530 eateries after the National Budget announcement and found that some had deliberately inflated prices ahead of the VAT reduction, in order to negate the intended consumer benefit.
“This is a strategic manipulation of pricing,” said Seema Shandil, CEO of the Consumer Council of Fiji.
“By raising prices now, these eateries can later claim to have passed on savings while keeping actual costs the same or even higher, undermining the intended financial relief for consumers. This behaviour is not only unethical but directly sabotages the government’s policy intent to alleviate the cost-of-living burden for ordinary Fijians”.
Notable examples included the cost of a fast-food outlet’s curry meal rising from $2 to $3, and a Suva restaurant raising the price of a two-person meal from $49.95 to $54, and menu hikes at multiple food courts.