Expect an increase in bus fares, wheat products: FCCC
FIJIANS should expect an increase in bus fares for all stages and some individual wheat products by next Friday.
Fijian Competition Consumers Commission (FCCC) chief executive officer Joel Abraham, while making the announcement yesterday, said it received submissions for reviews of bus fares, wheat products — flour prices, bread prices and biscuit prices.
Mr Abraham said the applications by the traders cited major shifts in input costs resulting from the global hike in fuel prices for bus fares and wheat prices for flour, bread and biscuit.
For bus fare, he said taking into consideration all necessary historical data, changes in input costs such as fuel prices, tyres, consumables, spare parts, the FCCC have approved an increase of 36.30 per cent for all the stages.
He said an increase in the maximum bus fare 36.3 per cent in all stages has been quantitatively deemed necessary for the sustainability of the Fijian bus industry.
“To put the price changes into perspective, the stage one fares increase from $0.75 to $1.02, stage two fares will increase from $1.18 to $1.61 and so on,” he said.
For flour prices, Mr Abraham said FCCC undertook a thorough review of the cost components, and has approved an increase of eight to nine per cent depending on the individual flour products.
“For example, Normal Flour 10kg pack factory wholesale price increases from $14.57 to $16.30. This will result in retail price changes from $15.68 to $16.95.
Meanwhile, Mr Abraham said following a review of flour prices and submissions by the manufacturers, FCCC has approved that breakfast crackers-FMF Brand 375g pkt price increases would increase from $1.70 to $2.00, breakfast crackers-FMF Brand 5kg plastic pail price from $28.41 to $32.14, breakfast crackers-FMF Brand 2kg plastic pail price increases from $12.36 to $13.89, long loaf price increases from $0.71 to $0.94, medium white (600 grams sliced) from $1 to $1.54 and medium wholemeal (600 grams sliced) from $1.14 to $1.63.