City Mart slams government for ‘unclear’ trade policy

City Mart Holdings has pulled imported alcohol and cigarettes from the shelves of its retail outlets and slammed the government over its trade policy following a raid on the warehouse of its major supplier last week.

The country’s largest retailer said in a statement that it had pulled the stock from shelves at its City Mart, Ocean and City Express shops because of the “unclear” situation over alcohol and cigarette imports.

City Mart described the current policy, under which only hotels and duty-free shops can legally import alcohol and cigarettes, as a loss for retailers, consumers and the government.

The company said the policy meant it had been forced to rely on hotels and duty-free shops for these products, as well as distributors who import through “illegal channels”.

“There has been no transparency in the retail sector since we started in 1996. It is difficult for us to check how the products from our suppliers have been imported ... This situation has cost the country a lot of revenue.”

“The business sector is very important for the country’s future development and we need transparency and clear rules and policies.”

The company said it had, through the Myanmar Retailers Association, been lobbying for changes to import rules since July. “Since then we have submitted suggestion letters continuously to get a legal trading channel for importing these products,” it said.

source: The Myanmar Times

http://www.mmtimes.com/index.php/national-news/9007-city-mart-slams-government-for-unclear-trade-policy.html