The government’s bid to scale down medicine prices yesterday came a cropper, with the GRTU, the representative of most pharmacy owners, telling them not to reduce prices unless the medicine importers gave them a refund.

The GRTU (Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises) also accused the Consumer and Competition Division of acting irresponsibly by ignoring the fact that pharmacy owners still had stocks of medicines which they had bought before the division had reached an agreement with importers to cut the prices.

It said that division representatives were yesterday calling at pharmacies and “with some arrogance” ordering owners to reduce the prices of those medicines which the owners had bought before the agreement was made with the importer to reduce the prices.

It said it had pointed out several times to the permanent secretary at the Competitiveness Ministry that importers should give refunds to pharmacy owners for stocks they held, every time an agreement was made with importers to reduce prices.

Many importers were refusing to give a refund, which meant that pharmacy owners would have to make good for the difference themselves.

The GRTU said it was directing pharmacy owners forthwith not to reduce prices except where importers gave them a refund. Medicines should be sold at the reduced price only when their stocks were exhausted and they started buying at the reduced prices from the importers.

It also warned the government it was prepared to take all the steps necessary to prevent the country reverting to the unwelcome times when the government was dictating market prices, with price controls

“à la Karl Marx”, and of the

“difensuri tax-xerrejja” (shoppers’ shields). These antiquated means to control prices showed that the government was not trusting the economic operators in the country and was not giving enough time for competition itself to dictate price changes.

When the government concluded agreements with a dominant operator it did so at the cost of small operators. It amounted to the government strengthening the powerful and weakening the weak.

The GRTU said it would defend its member retailers whenever necessary against bureaucrats and functionaries who liked to meddle with the market without at all understanding what they were doing.