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Note from the Editor:
The article below has raised some discussion in the community. The head of the Bureau of Economic Affairs. Mr. Dave Levenstone, was so kind as to allow us to publish the English version of the law concerned: “Price Act BES”. You can click HERE to read this law.
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Starting April 1, businesses in Saba may expect inspections on the pricing of merchandise sold. The Executive Council has established a Bureau of Economic Affairs, which will become operational and will carry out price comparisons from the beginning of next month. The price comparisons will be carried out on “non-governmental control items” at all supermarkets and groceries, a document issued Friday, March 9, by Acting Lt. Governor Roy Smith and Acting Island Secretary Raquel Granger stated.
Dave Levenstone has been appointed to carry out this duty. The document alerts business owners that Levenstone “will start to pay your place of business a visit in order for him to start preparing the list and recording the prices of the various products which will be made public.”
While the wider goals of the new bureau and the job descriptions of the positions to be filled are still to be clarified, the mentioned role of the Bureau “is the intention of the Executive Council to also issue a list of items that are being sold, that fall directly under price control regulations.”
The document requests “the fullest cooperation” of business owners. They were provided with a copy of the Price Act BES, which went into effect on February 24, 2011.
Source: “The Daily Herald” 2012-03-13
This is so non-sensical that this must be the first 1 April joke.
Rene u got a better idea to try and control prices and keep people from going hungry?
Wow this is pure communism, if I would be a shop owner I would go to the European Court in Brussels this is illegal at all. They better check the goverment what they spend for useless money
In stead of “communism” I would rather refer this as “amusing”. Fortunately I just read that the minister has told the Executive Council that is presently in the The Hague for the BES week, that by 2015 they must be a minimal professional level. It is clear from the message of the “reserve” team that this will be a real challenge.
I have learned that the Price act has been introduced in Holland in the first place to enforce a minimum price for products to protect smaller shops from dumping activities by the bigger ones, i.e., to avoid the creation of monopoly situations. In the financial arena it is also applied to banks to set maximum interest rates on loans. Most countries have a law of this kind to protect the interests of their citizens.
Anyway, this law only refers to goods or services that are critical for the public interest, so basic food products, gas, electricity, etc. The fact that Mr Levenstone will go around writing down prices in supermarkets has no relation to this law. Anyone may do that. In fact everybody should do that if he or she is interested to economize.
However it is a surprise to me that the Executive Council tasks a highly paid official (Head of the Bureau of Economic Affairs of the public Entity of Saba) to do this. Besides the Dutch Bureau of Statistics (CBS) is already doing this for all three islands. They publish the quarterly inflation figures.
Unfortunately the Executive council did not advertise publicly the post of Head of the Bureau of Economic Affairs. So the public does not know what the competences are required to hold this post. Anyway, for whatever reasons, the Executive Council decided to appoint Mr Levenstone to this post. It was very honorable of the Executive Council to appoint a person originating from St. Kitts to this post, rather than someone with strong Saban roots. I am glad that no discriminatory arguments were used in the procedure.
Anyway we may hope that Mr. levenstone can perform the task of writing down prices in shops. Let’s look forward to the results and lets note how it takes before we can learn the findings.
It is not my intention to respond to any bogus names appearing here on this site but I must respond to s et the record straight based on the fact that my name has been mentioned.
In responding to this so call John A. Johnson, I was born on the island of St. Kitts and I am proud of that and do not need for you to remind me of that. Everyone on Saba know where I was born, is it a crime to be born on St. Kitts?. I first came to Saba some 51 years and 3 months ago. As far as I know my father was born on Saba and all of his relatives were born here and they still live here they did not run away. Where I was born is not the issue at all. So Mr. John A. Johnson look for some other issue of importance to come with regarding my person. Be a man or woman and come clan with your name and stop hiding behind some bogus name.
Note from the Editor:
This article has raised some discussion in the community. The head of the Bureau of Economic Affairs. Mr. Dave Levenstone, was so kind as to allow us to publish the English version of the law concerned: “Price Act BES”.
We have added a link to the original text of the article through which you can download the English text of the law.