President of the Trade Union Confederation of Labor „Podkrepa“ Dimitar Manolov commented specifically to Iskra.bg that they generally approve of the imposition of price caps and surcharges, but personally he is deeply skeptical that such a measure can work at all.
„The state has essentially lost the mechanisms to do such things. This happened a long time ago – when we decided that we would leave everything to the invisible hand of the „market“ in huge quotation marks. We eliminated any possibility of that. And now that we have to do it, I’m not at all sure we’ll be up to the task. To put it mildly, I’m not sure!”, he pointed out.
Manolov explained that the state essentially does not have the mechanisms, not the legal possibility, to cap prices and surcharges. And he announced that the state has all the legal powers to do whatever it wants. But it does not have the mechanisms to control that this will actually happen, because there is no way to check all the stores that things will happen as written somewhere.
The Commission for Consumer Protection (CCP), according to him, also cannot cope with such a task because it has neither the resources nor the mechanisms. The Commission for Protection of Competition (CPC) should rather act here, Manolov stressed. He further explained that if a price cap is imposed, it should hardly affect only the small consumer basket, but it should certainly affect it.
„Another issue is that this topic could have been approached a bit selectively, that is, the emphasis should have been placed where things are most sensitive. That is, those economic entities that receive energy subsidies, for example, to undertake on their part against it, not to do some things that they do. But this is in the realm of wishful thinking,“, Manolov was adamant. Then he added:
„And even the Ministry of Finance, because they monitor these things, they have the mechanism to monitor them, they admit that in quite a few economic entities these benefits go directly to profit. This is totally outrageous!”
Asked by Iskra.bg how he would comment on the claims of a number of economists that if price caps and surcharges are imposed, it will lead to bankruptcies, outflow of investors and retail chains, Manolov replied:
„This is bullshit! This is the parrot talk we have been hearing for over 30 years. It’s the same parrot talk that has long since been proven to be untrue over the years, but it keeps on being told because these people are long since out of time. These are archaisms that have nothing to do with any reality. And it’s been proven a thousand times over, but these people, that’s why they get paid to say that. That businesses will not suffer from these things is absolutely certain, insofar as those same businesses are unlikely to meet these requirements. But that is not the only threat to it, because if we look at things, of course the cost of production, plus some normal profit, can bring things down to a price. We postulated over 30 years ago that the price of a good is the money you can get for it when you get it on the shelf. And these people are doing that.“
Manolov is adamant that at the moment there is speculation in prices on the market in Bulgaria. And throughout the chain.
„The manufacturer, unfortunately, being at the bottom of this chain, is the least involved in this work. But then everything happens – along these long chains. Which were also created on purpose. These are such parasitic chains that are absolutely unnecessary, but that’s how Gross Domestic Product is made. These are such parasitic chains that are absolutely unnecessary, but this is how Gross Domestic Product is made. Gross Domestic Product has become a fetish – that’s what happens when you push absolutely unnecessary parasitic intermediaries down the chain, whose participation adds up and you end up with Gross Domestic Product, which is kind of scary and we suggest to ourselves that we’re doing some great things – we’re doing stupid things!“, the president of the Trade Union „Pokdkrepa“ told Iskra.bg.
