The repeated occasions in which state authorities have referred to the drop in prices of the products that make up the basic family basketbecome a reason for jokes for merchants and buyers of Greater Santo Domingo, when, appealing to the double meaning, they refer that “the only thing that has gone down is the products from the truck to their sales stalls”.
“What have they dropped? But the what? The products from the truck?” ask the merchants in the New Market on Duarte Avenue ironically, claiming to be tired of the same old talk because food prices don’t go down, but people don’t stop complaining either.
A little over two weeks ago, the executive director of the National Institute for the Protection of Consumer Rights (Proconsumidor), Eddy Alcántara, stated that most of the products in the basic food basket have remained stable and others have experienced declines in their prices. prices, due to the application of the zero rate law.
In the shops of the capital, some vendors support the stability that the executive spoke about, however others continue to show their amazement affirming that the same line initiated since the pandemic, that today you buy at one price and tomorrow at a different one, has been maintained.
“Everything very expensive. The thing keeps going up and down. Yesterday I bought 45 pounds of tomato salad for 800 pesos and today I came back and it was 1,200.”assured Francisco, who maintains a stall in the La Duarte market.
zero rate
Among the items included in the zero rate arrobo, is beef and chicken; precisely two of the products that cause the greatest number of complaints among the population due to their high price with reference to a few years ago.
“Chicken, the meat of the poor. Now we have to eat only patica, because eating a piece of breast is a privilege, ”a client who only identified herself as Alexandra told journalists from LISTÍN DIARIO.
The price of a pound of chicken fluctuates between 80 and 90 pesoswhile beef costs from 160 to 200 pesos, eliminating purchase possibilities for the poorest and good sales for butchers.
“People live complaining, but imagine what can one do? because the problem is nothing more than everything is expensiveis the cost of living went up and people continue to charge the same as 6 or 20 years ago”, judged the merchant Ito Mejía.
also expensive. In addition to meat, wheat, corn and soy flour; as well as soybean, peanut and sunflower oils, are part of the application of the freedom from tariffs, however they continue to be the center of complaints, especially oil.
“It cannot be possible that a jumbo jet of oil can be worth up to 1,000 pesos and that the government continues to say that things are going down or that everything remains the same,” Miguel Ángel said furiously, affirming that he is hurt because he is a father of a family and many times the money is not enough.
Others with fluctuating prices are butter, except liquid margarine, garlic, peas, black, red, white, pinto, twists and jacomelo beans; lentils, beans, pigeon peas and peas.
