The country’s consumer watchdog, the Independent Consumer and Competitions Commission (ICCC) has been on the prowl inspecting shops to see if they have been complying with the price measures imposed on certain goods under the Commission's radar. In Port Moresby city, the price inspection exercise this week discovered about twenty- five shops in various suburbs in breach of Price Measure No. 4 and were issued with Infringement Notices (IN) on Tuesday, 27th February 2024. The ICCC staff were deployed throughout the city and parts of Central province as well to inspect shops and verify whether they have been complying with Price Measure No. 4, which was issued under the National Pandemic Act 2020 by the Office of the Controller on 30th March 2023. Measure No.4 states that the price increases of declared goods, which includes rice, sugar and flour, must not be above ten percent or more. Since the commencement of the inspection, more than twenty shops were inspected and twenty- five were caught increasing the prices of the declared goods without seeking prior approval from the ICCC. The ICCC officers on the ground said shop owners or managers were informed last year during the first phase of the price inspection; however, seeing price increases on some of the listed items was sheer negligence and ignorance on their part. It was discovered that some shops had more than ten items with their prices increased above ten percent. ICCC Commissioner and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mr. Paulus Ain, also said they had conducted mass awareness nationwide to inform shop owners about Measure No. 4 and the penalties for noncompliance. He explained that Measure No. 4 came into effect due to the effects of inflation experienced in the country, and after shops had calculated the selling prices for their goods, they are not to take advantage of the inflation and unnecessarily increase the final selling price for the goods. “We told them that if they lift the prices without our approval, then the penalty is K10, 000 on the spot fine, and if they refuse, we then proceed to the courts.” Meanwhile, the ICCC will continue to carry out the second phase of its nationwide price surveillance after starting just last month. Phase one of the price surveillance and inspection exercise was conducted between August and October of 2023 and the prices collected during phase one will be used as ‘base prices’ by the ICCC to monitor any subsequent price increases of the declared goods.