The public and business houses in the country will have to dig a bit deeper into their pockets to purchase Ramu Sugar following the announcement of a price increase on the locally refined sugar product. The Independent Consumer and Competitions Commission (ICCC) recently made this announcement just after acknowledging the increase of sugar price by Ramu Agri Industries Limited (RAIL) up by five per cent (5%). According to the ICCC Commissioner and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mr. Paulus Ain, the increase was due to RAIL’s factory- gate price. Ramu Agri notified the ICCC of the increase, stating that it was due to the high cost of operation and materials. “Upon ICCC’s assessment of the information provided by RAIL, the ICCC noted that RAIL’s price increases are mostly due to in- country cost, particularly its domestic production volume which is greater than its import volume,” said Mr. Ain. “Given RAIL’s high domestic production volume, the ICCC concluded that despite a reduction in international prices recently, this may not have a significant bearing on RAIL’s domestic prices. “We have observed that RAIL has been keeping its prices constant from 2018 to 2021, while international sugar prices have been increasing during that period, thus giving an indication that RAIL was not sensitive to movements in international sugar prices.” However, since December 2021, RAIL has been slowly increasing its factory- gate price between 3% and 5% as the global inflation continues to persist in the domestic economy. This Mr. Ain said is concerning for the Commission with the increase in price for sugar and other basic goods in the country. The ICCC is mandated to monitor the prices of basic household goods, including sugar and under the price monitoring role, it monitors the popular Ramu Mill White Sugar 1kg packs at the factory- gate level and at the retail level as well, against relevant international benchmark prices. As such, Mr. Ain said if there is a significant shift observed between domestic and international prices of sugar, then the ICCC may require RAIL to justify and if the ICCC is not satisfied with the justification, it can recommend to the Treasurer to declare sugar for stringent price controls. Nevertheless, the ICCC continues to urge other importers of sugar to reflect on their true cost in their pricing and they must not raise their prices unnecessarily to the detriment of consumers. Mr. Ain said the Commission will continue to monitor sugar prices to ensure consumers are not disadvantaged in terms of fair pricing.