The ministries of Interior and Commerce are working hard to prepare new regulations – with stiff penalties – for traders and companies that hike prices in the Kingdom, sources told Okaz/Saudi Gazette. The new regulations, which are being prepared by specialist committees in the two ministries, will double the number of years of suspension of commercial activity, withdraw commercial licenses, deprive violators from practicing their trades, double fines for owners of companies and establishments, and publish their names in the media, according to sources. The sources hinted that the new penalties might also be levied against traders involved in earlier cases of fixing and hiking prices. In a related matter, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry confirmed that it has 340 supervisors who monitor prices and were appointed in the wake of the Royal Order to appoint 500 supervisors to monitor prices and combat commercial fraud. According to Commerce Ministry sources, the commercial supervisors carry out their functions by posing as consumers to catch traders who resort to price-fixing and monitor and follow up reports from citizens. The Ministry of Commerce has started taking serious steps to curb price hikes that many companies have started with the advent of the holy month of Ramadan. It has succeeded in its first move by restoring the basic prices of milk and laban to the levels where they were one month ago, after a wave of objections by the citizens and a boycott campaign that bore fruit within a few days. __
