Commodities Prices Still High, Despite Anti-inflation Protest

8th April 2008
By Kim Pov Suttont
Radio Free Asia
Translated from Khmer by Khmerization

Up until today there is no response from the government to opposition leader’s demand, who, a few days ago, led an anti-inflation protest to ask the government to take measures to lower the prices of goods, which have skyrocketed in the last few days.
The opposition leader, who is a former finance minister, Mr. Sam Rainsy, has blasted the government for not taking any measures to curb the price rises due fears that any measures (to curb the rises) might affect their own interests. As a result they allowed the commodities prices to rise higher than the prices in other countries.
Mr Sam Rain said: “That’s why they did not want to lower the taxes, as demanded by us. We demanded that they stop imposing taxes, but they did not stop and instead they taxed more because it benefited them personally. And they provide exclusive rights of monopoly only to their cronies. They never take any actions on important issues or they just take actions lightly.”
Last Sunday, Mr. Sam Rainsy had led a peaceful protest with the participation of about 300 people to demonstrate against the high commodities prices, in particular the petrol price.
In the protest, he had set out three points for the government to tackle the commodities prices, such cutting petrol excise and reducing the profit margins by the petrol distributing companies. Secondly, end the monopoly of any rogue traders who have continually increased the prices of goods at their own will regardless. Thirdly, properly manage the economy by stabilising the currency. Fourthly, control the printing of money and fifthly, reform land systems- that is to distribute lands to the citizens who have no land to farm.
All of Mr Sam Rainsy’s demands have been rejected by the government spokesman, who accused Mr. Sam Rainsy of raising the issues as an election campaign to win votes in the upcoming election.
Mr Khieu Kanharith, the government spokesman, claimed that the government had subsidised the fuel, had not raised any taxes, had banned the exports of rice and had resolved many land disputes, as have been seen recently.
Mr Kanharith said: “The government continues to lose taxes and for a long, long time the government dares not increase any taxes. We impose taxes in term of the weight of goods, not on the quantity of the imports. He knew what was happening around the world. The prices of rice have risen around the world so the farmers are very happy about that. So what the government needs to do is to increase the salary of the workers, imports meat, bans rice exports for 2-3 months in order to bring down the prices of rice.”
It must be noted that the World Bank’s report of late 2007 stressed that the prices of foods in Cambodia had increased by 20% and the prices of petrol had increased by 12%.
As of today, the prices of rice are stable and dropped slightly after the government took emergency actions (to curb the price rises), but the price of petrol had increased to 5,000 riels per litre (~US$1.25/litre) and there is no sign of it coming down any time soon. //