Lithuanian Employers’ Confederation calls on the government to allow the opening of non-food stores



[ad_1]

The president of the confederation, Danukas Arlauskas, says that now the biggest benefit is grocery stores, which also sell other goods, starting with household appliances and ending with household items. They cannot operate other stores whose main activity is not the food trade.

Mr Arlauskas claims that such a procedure distorts fair competition and expels many companies from the market.

Photo by Lukas Balandis / 15min / Director General of the Confederation of Employers of Lithuania Danukas Arlauskas

Photo by Lukas Balandis / 15min / Director General of the Confederation of Employers of Lithuania Danukas Arlauskas

“The continued application of unjustified and discriminatory conditions will not only violate the requirements of the Constitution, but will also irreversibly distort the market itself, and it would be impossible to restore the situation to the previous situation,” the government said on the government website.

According to the president of the confederation, the additional benefits of the restrictions are also questionable in the handling of the pandemic, since the concentration of people in physical grocery stores is now increasing.

“Allowing non-food stores to operate … would help dissipate the flow of people, thus reducing the number of contacts,” the letter said to the Prime Minister, the Minister of Economy and the President of the Competition Council.

Allowing non-food stores to operate (…) would also help dissipate the flow of people, thus reducing the number of contacts.

According to D. Arlauskas, electronic commerce cannot be considered an adequate alternative and does not cover the loss of companies due to the closure of physical stores.

Calls for information technology solutions, based on foreign experiences, to limit the flow of people and help track contacts in case of infection.

D. Arlauskas also asked the Competition Council for an active role in resolving the situation.

The second quarantine in Lithuania is valid from the beginning of November. By decision of the previous government of Saulius Skvernelis, cafes, bars and restaurants, sports clubs, cinemas, spectators at sporting events were banned, and lessons in schools were restricted.

Ingrida Šimonytė’s government tightened the quarantine in mid-December, ordered the closure of non-food stores and most service providers, prohibited them from leaving the municipality and communicating with more than one household without good reason, and extended education. at a distance from the students.



[ad_2]