Exorbitant increase to the price of products like disinfecting gel, protection masks and gloves leads to suspicions of speculation.
This Thursday ASAE is carrying out a pharmacy fiscalization operation. Objective: understanding if the prices charged for products like disinfecting gel, masks and gloves are the ones set by law, or if they may confirm a crime of speculation.
Contacted by Público, ASAE confirmed the fiscalization operation, and postponed issuing any additional information about it. The fiscalization action takes place at least in the region of Lisboa e Vale do Tejo, (Lisbon and Tagus Valley), but it may have a wider reach.
ASAE is one of the entities that integrate a work group created by the government this week to follow and assess the supply of goods from the agro-food and retail sectors in the sequence of the market conditions generated by the coronavirus pandemic.
The work group has two weeks to present a report with “preventive or corrective measures to maintain or reestablish regular supply conditions”. It’s made up of government representatives in charge of coordinating agriculture, the Directorate General of Economic Activities, the Department for Planning, Policy and General Agricultural Administration, the Portuguese Association of Supply Companies, the Directorate General of Food and Veterinary, and the Association of Food Product Distributors. It also integrates elements of the National Association of Portuguese Carriers, of the National Association of Public Road Carriers, of the House of Olive Oil - Portugal’s Olive Oil Association, of the Federation of Portuguese Agro-Food Industries, of the National Federation of Milk Production Cooperatives, of the National Federation of Fruit and Vegetable Producers, of the Portuguese Federation for Poultry Associations, and of the Portuguese Federation of Stockman Associations.
Over the past few days, reports have emerged on social networks on the exorbitant increase in the price of products to prevent infection, such as gel, masks and gloves.