The Consumer Council calls for dairy products to again be placed under price control, and for the cancellation of VAT on price-controlled dairy products.

In light of recent increases in the price of basic food products, the Consumer Council calls on the government to take a number of steps to benefit consumers – among them, to restore price controls on basic dairy products, previously removed from the price control regime, and to cancel the collection of VAT on dairy products that are subject to price control.

In the Council’s view, these steps would be expected to reduce the prices of these products to the general public, prevent producers from making unreasonable profits at the expense of consumers, and make these basic food products accessible to financially disadvantaged population groups who have been hit hard by increases in the prices of basic dairy products in recent years.

Consumer Council research data, taken in part from advertising materials, shows that the underlying assumption for removing price controls from basic dairy products – that competition in the dairy industry will keep prices down – has not been realized. It is suspected that dairy producers and marketers have taken advantage of the removal of price controls on dairy products to raise their prices and increase their profits at the expense of consumers.

Consumer Council CEO, Adv. Ehud Peleg, says that the proposed steps will ensure the continuation of the State of Israel’s social welfare policy of ensuring the provision of basic foodstuffs to the whole of the population, and will ease the cost burden faced by the public.