Diapers, milk and baby products soaring prices for consumers: guarantor and government in the field

After fuel and pasta, the government also shines a light on baby products (diapers, milk and car seats for children) after complaints from consumers who signaled rising prices despite the reduction in VAT to 5% on the first last January as a result of the Budget Law.
The Guarantor for price surveillance has – explains a note – since the beginning and at the disposal of the Minister of Enterprise and Made in Italy Adolfo Urso, carried out monthly monitoring aimed at estimating, also territorially, the current variation in consumer prices of products subject to the new rate, compared to the month of December 2022 (before, therefore, its introduction).
From this monitoring it emerged that in the first 3 months of application of the reduced rates, until last March, the effects of the maneuver do not appear to be entirely transferred to the benefit of the consumer: in some cases, in fact, even taking into account that the extent of the intervention enters a phase characterized by inflation that is still present (food, home and personal care products show, between December 2022 and March 2023, an overall increase of +3%), a reduction in the price equal to only 50% of that expected.
In the light of these data, therefore, Minister Urso has given a mandate to the Guarantor for price surveillance to convene as soon as possible a meeting of the new Rapid Alert Commission, set up with the recent Transparency Decree, to discuss the reasons underlying the price dynamics of the products concerned, in order to carry out the necessary interventions.
The offices supporting the Guarantor, processing the provincial indexes of consumer prices of Istat for the period December 2022/March 2023 estimated a drop of 4.9% for open diapers, 2.9% for panties, 1 .3% of starting infant milk, 2.6% for growing infant milk and 1.4% for follow-on milk; while the prices of car seats have dropped by an average of 2%.
According to the National Union of Consumers, which in recent days had requested an intervention by Mimit, baby food which in January should have gone down in price, increased by 0.1% compared to December 2022 and by as much as 2.7% in February month on month, while personal hygiene and well-being items, natural products, item including diapers and sanitary towels, rose by 0.4% in January. «The problem with the maneuvers on VAT – explains the president of the Unc, Massimiliano Dona – is that if there is not an overall and organic reorganization, which we always request, they only end up benefiting traders who are not obliged to transfer the cut of the tax on the final price and, therefore, too often, they collect it».
«As happened with fuel prices at distributors, today at their lowest since 2021 – comments Urso in turn – we will act with perseverance and determination so that the prices of products for children are reduced, with a transparency operation that makes those who have some understand possibly taken advantage of. The VAT cut had to go entirely to the benefit of consumers and we will act in this sense – he concludes -. In the meantime, we note that after our intervention, pasta prices have begun to drop».