FAS may allow regions to enter into agreements with retailers to limit prices for socially significant products

The authorities of the Russian regions will be able to temporarily enter into voluntary agreements with retailers and suppliers in order to limit margins on socially significant products. The corresponding draft resolution was developed by the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS). This was reported RBC with a link to the portal of draft regulatory legal acts.

As explained to RBC in the press service of the FAS, the agreements are a temporary measure to curb price increases, they will be “only voluntary.” The regions will be able to independently determine the positions of socially significant goods, for which the margin will be limited. The FAS did not specify how long the decision would be in effect. The document has not yet been submitted for approval to the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

As follows from the draft resolution, the measure is associated with the accession to Russia of the DPR, LPR, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions. The FAS believes that due to the abolition of customs regulation and state regulation of prices for important goods in these territories, retailers will not be able to calculate wholesale surcharges on the import value of goods.

“As an alternative measure to stabilize the price situation in the new territories, the issue of voluntary self-limitation of markups by regional retail chains is being worked out, taking into account the existing Russian experience,” the document says.

In Russia, restrictions were imposed on the margin on products in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic. Retailers locked in prices for sugar and sunflower oil, which rose significantly in price at the time. By agreement with the government, the cost of 1 liter of sunflower oil in wholesale should not exceed 95 rubles, in retail – 110 rubles, 1 kg of sugar – no more than 36 rubles. in wholesale and no more than 46 rubles. in retail.

Olesya Pavlenko