By Wendy Mkandawire
The Competition and Fair Trading Commission ( CFTC) has warned the education institutions to be reasonable when raising the fees to avoid excessive pricing which is prohibited under section 28 and 51 of the CFTC act.
According to CFTC Director of Communications Innocent Helema said CFTC has come across information suggesting that some associations are consulting their members to hike tuition and other fees for their education institutions like school,colleges and universities.
According to Helema the reports have cited financial pressure as the primary justification for this collective review of fees .
” any collective or coordinated effort by an association or an umbrella body to determine, recommend,or structure uniform adjustment of tuition fees or any service/product price amounts to ant- competitive business behavior as provided for under section 26 and 27
of the Competition and fair trading Act” , he added”, he added.
He further said that should any person, including associations and education institutions,proceed to engage in collusive and / excessive pricing, the Commission the commission will institute formal investigations against them.
Helema cited that under section 22(2) of the CFTA, the consequences for any person or Enterprise engaging in the aforementioned prohibited practices are severe to the extent of paying a monetary penalty of up to 5 percent of their gross annual income ( for individuals) or up to 10 percent of their gross annual turnover ( for Enterprise).
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Wendy Mkandawire is a journalist for Leyman Publications based in Lilongwe, Malawi. |
