The Syrian Ministry of Industry, Internal Trade, and Consumer Protection is developing supply control tools by intensifying field rounds, monitoring prices, invoices, and supply chains, within a trend to strengthen market regulation and protect consumer rights. This move aims to enhance transparency and limit monopolistic practices and price manipulation, by activating electronic complaints and accelerating the processing of violations.
For his part, Hassan Al-Shawa, Director of the Consumer Protection and Food Safety Directorate at the Ministry, confirmed that the new measures include tracking the movement of goods from importers and wholesalers to sales outlets, with verification of their sources and quality. He clarified that the Directorate's role has shifted from direct intervention in setting prices to focusing on obligating commercial entities to clearly announce commodity prices, conducting price surveys in markets, and intervening in cases of instability.
Al-Shawa added that supervision relies on a field apparatus distributed across patrols belonging to Consumer Protection Directorates in various governorates. These rounds include monitoring the circulation of invoices, price announcements, material validity, and compliance with health requirements and Syrian standards. He also pointed out that addressing price disparities for a single commodity is achieved by obligating commercial entities to clearly announce prices and circulate invoices, enabling the tracking of goods' movement and sources, and intervening when prices are excessively high for exploitation purposes.
Al-Shawa stated that monitoring invoices and supply chains plays a fundamental role in limiting price manipulation, by tracking the source of goods and verifying their weight and compliance with Syrian standards, whether local or imported. He also explained that price monitoring includes surveying wholesale and retail prices and tracking goods' movement through various trading stages, from importers and wholesalers and warehouses to commercial shops, ensuring that supervision is not limited to the final sales stage for consumers.
Regarding mechanisms for dealing with price increases or shortages of goods, Al-Shawa clarified that intervention begins by investigating the causes leading to this. If there are indications of monopoly or monopolistic practices, necessary supervisory measures are taken by inspecting warehouses and verifying stored quantities. If the increase is due to objective reasons, such as a shortage of a specific material or a decline in local production, the reality is studied and appropriate proposals are prepared in coordination with competent authorities, including the possibility of allowing the import of the material when needed.
Al-Shawa emphasized that electronic complaints form a core axis in developing supervisory work, noting that more than 220,000 commercial entities across governorates have been surveyed and linked to an electronic system that allows direct tracking of complaints via QR codes. He indicated that directorates work to receive, process, and respond to complaints within less than 48 hours, with processing sometimes taking just one hour, accompanied by direct intervention through consumer protection patrols depending on the nature of the violation.
He added that the implementation of complaints and electronic codes has facilitated citizens' access to Consumer Protection Directorates, enhanced the flow of information and response speed, and provided direct communication channels between the administration, commercial entity owners, and consumers. Regarding violations related to material quality and food safety, Al-Shawa explained that they vary between failure to announce prices, failure to circulate invoices, and violations concerning the nature of materials and their compliance with Syrian standards, in addition to violations related to health requirements and product validity.
He clarified that addressing these violations is done daily and directly through supervisory rounds. The available data also allows for surveying, classifying, and counting violations at the level of regions, towns, and governorates. Supply control patrols conduct daily field rounds in various Syrian governorates, alongside equipping them with portable cameras that document inspection procedures with audio and video, enabling live broadcasting and geolocation, thereby enhancing transparency and accountability and safeguarding the rights of inspectors, traders, and consumers.
Source: Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA)
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