Opposition urges price controls amid soaring food costs
Opposition members have renewed calls for stronger price controls in the territory, arguing that unchecked price increases are placing sustained pressure on households already struggling with the cost of living.
Speaking during the budget debate in the House of Assembly, Opposition Leader Myron Walwyn said residents were facing rising prices on everyday items without any effective monitoring or intervention by the Trade Department. He told lawmakers that many families were running out of money well before the end of each month as food, electricity, water and rent costs continued to climb.
Walwyn said the problem was most visible in supermarkets and retail outlets, where prices for basic goods were increasing rapidly and inconsistently. He described situations in which identical items were sold at different prices from one store to another, and in some cases even cheaper at small corner shops than at the larger supermarkets supplying them. “Something has to be done,” he said.
He argued that competition alone was not keeping prices down in the territory and that government oversight was now necessary. Walwyn called for the establishment or strengthening of a price control or monitoring unit within the Trade Department to track mark-ups on essential goods and ensure fairness. “You need some price control unit somewhere to monitor what is happening. It’s needed,” he said.
Walwyn told the House that unchecked price increases were eroding people’s disposable income and damaging the wider economy. He warned that when prices rise without oversight, households are forced to cut spending elsewhere, hurting small businesses and slowing economic activity. “You are messing with people’s disposable income,” he said while adding that many residents earn fixed monthly incomes that cannot absorb constant price hikes.
He also questioned whether existing consumer protections were being enforced, suggesting that the lack of monitoring allowed some businesses to raise prices arbitrarily. Walwyn compared price oversight to fuel regulation, noting that consumers rely on authorities to ensure fairness and accuracy. “Somebody needs to roll up with a gallon bottle and say pump a gallon in here, let me see if you fill it up,” he said, to underline the need for checks and balances.
The Opposition Leader said rising food prices were making healthy eating increasingly unaffordable and were contributing to wider social and economic stress. He urged the government to take immediate steps to protect consumers, particularly lower-income households, as part of its responsibility to address bread-and-butter issues affecting daily life.
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Need duty control.
At moments like this, we cannot afford to think small or to cling to the comfort of old formulas. What we need is leadership that is bold, practical, and rooted in a genuine belief in the future of the British Virgin Islands. Someone like former legislator Mark “Action Man” Vanterpool fits the bill. He understands the discipline of business, he knows how government truly works, and he carries a deep commitment to this country and its people. I believe that combination gives him the capacity to bring fresh thinking and real solutions to challenges that demand courage, creativity, and resolve.
MV when he is a big part of the problem? $99 for 4 burgers that he brings in through his wholesale? Whoever you are go siddung!
He doesnt know how to put prices on items in his stores. He robbing the people.
Action Man buy that white elephant on the bay and there ain’t no action going on there. Be buying another fake Luxury Award in 2026 no doubt.
Action man with his ridiculously high prices at his supermarket and restaurants? You really like punishment
Hard to know what the prices are.
Go to the big stores and the prices are not marked anymore.
You never know what you paying.
How can you know the price is high or low?
If you all want to see these things stop going to the Polls and making it a popularity contest.
Even for someone with a significant position in this government, this is an idiotic idea. Price controls always lead to shortages – every single time they have been tried. How about cutting the government bloat by reducing the number of employees in there by the taxes that the ordinary citizens have to pay just to fund a huge salary structure for bureaucrats that are not needed.
America’s political issies are not apples to apples with our issues in the BVI.
i agree we could get rid of 30 to 40 percent of all government workers and see no drop off in the services that are provided, many of them don’t work at all, they are surfing the web or m.i.a
That is all disengenuous and smelly hot air coming from the holes of the well placed greedy elee ted servants.
There is no genuine care for the people by this government.
There is no genuine intention by this government to uplift and radicate the economic suffering of the people.
If they had, they would not have approved a three cents raise for some employees in the food industry. That is not a raise that is a bonified insullt to people’s labor, while profits margins escalate beyond all reasonability.
If there were, they would have given the people the minimum wage they need.
Members of the present opposition put the present consumer bill in place and did nothing to protect the people !!!!!
Price controls…
Think of Venezuela where that happens. Products become scarce or non existent, inflation makes products even more unaffordable, and the economy tanks.
Duties and import taxes are too high
Undoubtedly, prices are rising across globe., including the VI. The VI, for the most part, is a food desert, having to import of its food and other items. Politicians has a propensity to school consumers, the people, etc, that the economy is going. Joe Biden tried to do that; it failed.Donald Trump is trying the same thing; it is failing. Here is a news flash; you cannot tell people how to feel, for he/she who feels knows it. What happens if the container ship are interrupted and cannot come or delayed? I digressed.
True, when prices are skyrocketing driving up the cost of living consumers, viz-a-viz look to government, democratic governments in a capital economy to control prices to lower prices. The reality though is price control results in shortages, and poor quality. For example, if government sets a price on “PET” ( can milk), merchants have a choice, ie, a) discontinue carrying PET milk or b) carry a cheaper,, poorer quality milk, etc..What can government do to help lower prices?
It can lower import duty. It can increase the dollar value where income is exempted from taxes. Further, a fellow blogger E. Leonard suggested developing a temporary, means-tested Universal Basic Income (UBI) program. What is it? My understanding is government giving a group of people a monthly allocation to help cover, for example, the proverbial basket of goods.
There is no perfect answer to this problem, everything has to be imported and that in turn narrows down options. However, this writer can confirm that today, throughout the US, hung meat (whole, half or quarter) can be purchased at circa $4.50 to £5.50 per pound, and, that’s butchered and packed. How a fillet steak can be presented at $40 per pound in the supermarket when hung meat can be purchased at between $4.50 and $5.50 per pound is beyond this writers comprehension.
Our import duty is crazy plus even when the government give tax break on essential items that don’t pass down to the consumer cuz the greedy local businesses just use that as more profits keeping prices exactly the same. Greed mehson