24/7 Tass 62
MOSCOW, July 24 (Itar-Tass) — Trade legislation will develop to raise responsibility before customers. This opinion was expressed to reporters on Sunday by chairman of the Supreme Council of the United Russia Party and speaker of the State Duma Boris Gryzlov on the Day of Trade Workers.
The head of the lower chamber congratulated on the professional holiday “all who fulfils responsibly this work, necessary for all of us”. “We have left far behind the situation of the 1990s when people were forced to sell anything that earned any cash,” he noted. “The situation has changed now, but this doesn’t mean that trade needs no legislative regulation.” “There are problems, and they wait for their solution.” Gryzlov said with conviction.
“This is also true of such important topic as food security,” continued the leader of the United Russia faction at the State Duma. “There are too many import foods on the shelves of our shops, while national agricultural producers experience difficulties with selling their goods.”
In Gryzlov’s opinion, “the direction of our work was singled out, above all, by the adoption of the law on trade”. “It was worked out and adopted despite the unprecedented pressure by lobbyists,” he stated. “Of course, the development of store chains is a natural process, but these chains should not turn into monopolists, should not dictate their own conditions to producers as well as to consumers and should not stifle small business.”
“The adoption of the law played an important role, but we cannot say so far that the implementation of the law has reached all its aims,” the Duma speaker admitted. “Sure, the crisis has played its role, but we are now in the post-crisis period, and there are all opportunities to move farther.”
“The crisis has cancelled none of our tasks. What’s more, it confirmed the need for their solution,” he emphasized.
In this context, Gryzlov called attention to the fact that United Russia implements the party project “People’s control”, aimed at ensuring norms of the law on trade and at staving off rigged prices.
“Additional measures are taken at the same time to stimulate deliveries of fresh, high quality and inexpensive products for the table of every Russian citizen, including organization of weekend-fairs and tax exemption for incomes, received thanks to selling what has been grown at household plots of land,” he enumerated.
As for development of legislation in the sphere of trade as a whole, “it will be connected, above all, with stimulating trade enterprises to improve the quality of their work and to raise their responsibility before customers,” predicts the leader of the parliamentary majority. “The future of trade is not in the monopoly system, but in competition; not in high prices, but in the quality of goods,” he concluded.