High prices at filling stations for petrol and diesel, but also for heating oil, make “urgent action” necessary in the view of the Chamber of Commerce. The AK suspects that, despite falling prices, margins are still being calculated at the expense of the consumer and is therefore now submitting a price proposal to Minister of Economic Affairs Martin Kocher (ÖVP).
“By starting a price review process, it is expected that the pressure on companies will increase and that they will react on their own initiative and that both margins and prices at the gas stations will fall,” said AK chairman Renate Anderl on Thursday. As part of the pricing commission, audits should be performed as this is the only way to understand the companies’ actual production costs, bases of calculation and profit margins.
Are there any conditions at all?
The task of the price committee is to monitor price developments and, if necessary, to take countermeasures. According to the Price Act, the Minister of Economic Affairs is obliged to investigate, if requested, whether the prices of certain products are disproportionately high or have risen more than the international average. If unjustifiably high prices are found, the minister can set reasonable prices for a period of six months. The prize committee, chaired by the Minister of Economic Affairs, consists of representatives of the Chamber of Labor (AK), the Chamber of Commerce (WKÖ), the Chamber of Agriculture (LKÖ) and the Ministry of Finance.
At the end of August, Kocher was skeptical that the conditions for price regulation had been met. Kocher stressed at the time that there were only two cases where such a move was possible. On the one hand, if the supply is no longer assured, which is not the case now, and on the other, if prices are disproportionately high in an international comparison. That is not the case. In that regard, he was “unconvinced that the requirements are being met,” he said at the time.
AK last failed in 2008
Most recently, in 2008, a price review procedure was initiated by the Chamber of Labor due to food prices. “At the time, the AK was voted out and the procedure was stopped by Minister Bartenstein, who was then responsible without conducting company audits,” Anderl says.
Source: Krone
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