Popular organizations that sat down to negotiate with government representatives this afternoon, at the single dialogue table to advance the previously agreed agenda of issues, proposed a 30% reduction in the price of the basic food basket in the first point discussed on the day of this Thursday.
In the conversations of the single dialogue table installed in Penonomé, in the province of Coclé, there are leaders of the United People for Life Alliance, the National Alliance of Organized People (Anadepo), members of the groups of the Ngäbe Buglé region and peasant communities.
The leaders proposed an expanded basic healthy family basket, with healthy food products and other necessary expenses.
They explained that there is a loss of purchasing power of wages and income of 30% in the last 5 years.
Therefore, they consider that it is necessary to reduce the cost of the basic basket of 30%, whose cost is close to $1,600 per month, without affecting the national producer. “Close gaps between wages and income and access to the expanded basic healthy family basket, since in Panama every day half a million Panamanians go to bed without eating,” they indicated.
In this regard, they proposed a 30% reduction in the cost of the basic basket, the creation of a price regulation office to oversee this implementation and follow up on it at the national level.
They also recommended the establishment of reasonable profit margins in each of their processes and support for the efficient production of the national agricultural sector that can lower its costs. Similarly, to increase effective local production, they proposed to implement and regulate Law 279 of December 30, 2021, which allows the IMA to import agricultural inputs and agricultural fertilizers at low costs; among other measures.
The other points pending discussion at the single table include the reduction and freezing of the price of fuel, the reduction of energy, the reduction of medicines, the allocation of 6% of the GDP to education, the discussion of the problem of the CSS, the corruption and the creation of an intersectoral monitoring table.
