The Barbados Consumer Empowerment Network (BCEN) has thrown its support behind the government’s new transfer pricing review, but is expressing disapproval over how consumer protection is characterised.

On Wednesday, Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs  Kerrie Symmonds indicated moves to clamp down on supermarket chains’ internal pricing practices alongside a national conservation push, as the government targets both corporate structures and household habits blamed for keeping the cost of living high.

Transfer pricing – the way companies set prices for goods and services exchanged between different parts of the same corporate group – has been identified as a potential driver of higher supermarket shelf prices, especially where the same group controls importing, distribution and retailing and can add mark-ups at each stage.