CAA, Trade minister must provide relief to people in rural, town areas: Canteen Owners Assn.

The Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) Chairman and Trade Minister should implement a plan to grant concessions to reduce prices of essential commodities for people in rural and town areas, at least through SATHOSA outlets, the All Island Canteen Owners' Association (AICOA) said.

AICOA Chief Asela Sampath said with the increase in the electricity tariff, we are in a situation of having to find the CAA chairman and the Minister from where they are hiding.

The burden from raising the electricity tariff will be mitigated to some extent if the standard retail price of essential goods is provided for people in rural and urban areas," he said.

"The canteen system in the country is not running with the use of solar panels. They all use electricity as the main power source to operate electrical equipment such as deep freezers, refrigerators, water heaters and rice cookers to prepare meals. "With the shortage of domestic gas and fuel, the use of electric equipment has increased," he said.

At the PUCSL chairman's announcement about the electricity tariff increase, we hope that the CAA chairman will come and make his statement at least on how to provide relief by reducing the prices of potatoes, big onions, and chillies to rural villages. But we cannot find the CAA chairman in this situation," Sampath said.

"If the CAA chairman and the Trade Minister do not act to provide the concessions, the canteen owners will have to take stern action. Prices of yogurt, ice cream, soft drinks, milk packets and even chicken will rise as they must be kept in refrigerators. We can't turn them off and on in the morning. "If we do so, the quality of the food will reduce and the canteen owners will have to use more electricity to keep the food in refrigerators," Sampath added. (Chaturanga Samarawickrama)