PM Garibashvili: Inflated oil prices violates competition law

Government officials spent the day debating why the price of oil in Georgia continues to be high despite the cost of the commodity falling around the globe. 

Georgia’s Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili met with members of the Government to discuss the initial results of an oil market survey prepared by the Competition Agency.

High prices in the local market were one of the main issues discussed at a Governmental meeting held at the Government's Administration building last night. 

Garibashvili, as head of the Georgian Government, emphasized that in the second alf of 2014, oil prices around the world have recently dropped significantly. 

He said the cost of oil in many countries had dropped by about 60 percent recently but in Georgia this had not happened, and the country had not adequately responded to the international oil market situation.

"I think that in a healthy competition in free markets, local oil companies should have an adequate pricing policy. However, on the contrary there is a slight decrease on oil prices by companies. In addition, on numerous occasions many intermediary companies purchased the same type of oil at completely different prices,” Georgia's Prime Minister said.

Furthermore, Garibashvili said the current situation was a violation of the law of competition.

"In particular this is a violation of Section 7 of the Competition Law, where it was forbidden to use different or discriminatory conditions toward certain trade partners with identical transactions,” Garibashvili said.

He said the Competition Agency was continuing to comprehensively research the issue and when the results were released, the Georgian Government would take appropriate action to best protect consumers' interests.