Caught charging speculative prices

The Mozambican government’s National Inspectorate of Economic Activities (INAE), in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, last week inspected 83 pharmacies throughout the country, to check whether they had hiked their prices in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

At a Maputo press conference on Friday, the general inspector of health, Martinho Dgedge, said that 15 of the pharmacies inspected were charging speculative prices.

The goods for which these pharmacies were charging prices up to 300 per cent more than recommended included N95 face masks, surgical gloves, alcohol-based gels for sanitising hands, vitamin C, and even paracetamol.

Dgedge warned all pharmacies that they must obey the law. “The crime of speculation is punished with a prison term of up to two years, and a fine five times the value of the merchandise seized”, he said. Failure to display the prices of the goods on sale was also an offence, he said, warning that henceforth the authorities will be stricter in ensuring full compliance with the law. The general inspectorate of health is also urging the public not to buy medicines from inappropriate places. “We know that, due to shortages, individuals appear who sell medical alcohol or gloves outside of the authorized places”, said Dgedge. This posed the risk that citizens might buy worthless counterfeit goods.

For her part, the general inspector of INAE, Rita Freitas, announced that from 30 March to 2 April, INAE had carried out 492 inspections across the country, covering wholesale and retail trade, industry and services. Freitas called for collaboration from consumers in denouncing price speculation in basic goods, including maize flour, cooking oil, rice, sugar, potatoes, onions, beans, groundnuts and fish.