ammonnews.net

Ammon News - Prime Minister Bisher Khasawneh said on Tuesday that the Civil and Military Consumer Corporations have a key role, along with the private sector, in providing stable supplies of basic foodstuffs and preventing price-gouging.

In remarks during a tour of consumer corporation markets in the West Amman district of Bayader Wadi Al Seer, the prime minister commended the corporations for steps they took to provide sufficient supplies of goods at fair prices ahead of the start of the holy month of Ramadan and beyond.

The Kingdom has a safe stock of staple commodities that is enough for long periods, he assured, noting His Majesty King Abdullah's directives to ensure a strategic food reserve in warehouses and grain silos.

Khasawneh also noted measures his government had taken to curb the global surge in prices and stabilize the local market, notably reducing the general sales tax on vegetable oils to zero, instead of 4%, until the end of May.

During his tour, the Prime Minister talked to people in the markets and listened to their complaints about prices, expressing his wishes on the holy month.

The directors of the Civil and Military Consumer Corporations told the prime minister that their facilities had early on put in place plans to ensure sufficient staple foods during the fasting month, including vegetable oil, rice are sugar, at reasonable prices.