One of the 80 actions announced by President Nicos Christodoulides for 2024, during the presentation of the Government's Official Program for this year, seems to be underway. This includes a bill that will set maximum selling prices for specific products in certain locations.

It should be recalled that during the presentation of the Government's Program, President Christodoulides referred to a governmental package of immediate and medium-term measures amounting to €196 million to support the Cypriot society and announced other targeted measures and actions within 2024. Among these, the e-kalathi platform will be implemented, and a bill will be promoted that will set a maximum price for certain products.

According to information from Brief, the aforementioned bill is expected to be submitted for discussion and approval at the Cabinet meeting next week, and subsequently presented to Parliament for voting.

The bill, titled "The Law on Setting Maximum Retail Prices of Products at Specific Points of Sale," will include products available in certain areas where competition is not operational, such as beaches, airports, stadiums, theme parks, archaeological sites, zoos, etc., where there is only one point of product sale.

Brief has learned that the bill will initially include specific packaging of water bottles - certainly 500 ml, and possibly extending to 750 ml - which will have to be offered at a specific price determined by the cost and profit for the businesses. In the future, other products may also be included.

Based on the same information, the maximum selling price for a 500 ml water bottle is expected to be set between 50 and 60 cents per bottle.

However, it's worth emphasizing that although the venues included in the legislation can offer 500 ml water bottles at a higher price, they will, in essence, be required to also offer a package of water at the maximum price set.

Regarding the e-kalathi, according to Brief, the Director of the Consumer Protection Service, Konstantinos Karayiorgis, expects the related Tender to be officially announced next week.

As he explained, "a preliminary announcement was made for 10 days regarding the terms of the offer, during which we received some comments, which will be incorporated into the final text of the Tender," noting that the preliminary announcement was part of the process that needed to be followed.

It should be noted that the Tender will remain open for at least a month, followed by the evaluation of offers, selection of the bidder, signing of the relevant contract, and then the preparation of the application through which consumers will be informed daily about the prices of basic products available for sale in large supermarkets.

According to the calculations of the Consumer Protection Service, the e-kalathi application is expected to be ready and accessible to the public by the end of 2024.