The holy month of Ramadan will begin tomorrow as the Crescent Sighting Committee at the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs announced that the Ramadan crescent was not sighted and as a result today (Wednesday, March 22), is the final day of Sha’ban.
Ministries and other organisations have taken many steps for the benefit of people during the holy month.
The General Endowments Department at the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs recently announced that they will serve 10,000 Iftar meals daily through their tents which will be set up in densely populated areas across the country. The Ministry has also lined up thousands of religious activities, including religious lectures and cultural competitions for all age groups. They will also provide food baskets to the needy. The Ministry has readied over 2,000 mosques across the country for receiving worshippers during the holy month.
The Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoCI) has launched several initiatives to curb the price hike of food commodities during Ramadan. MoCI has deployed inspectors for checking food outlets across the country to ensure compliance with consumer protection laws.
The Ministry has also launched an initiative to provide over 900 commodities at discounted prices in coordination with major sales outlets. This initiative kicked off on March 12 and will continue till the end of the holy month.
Recently the ministry announced another initiative through which the share of some rationed basic goods for citizens was doubled for one time, for the blessed month of Ramadan.
Qatar has always taken measures to protect the interest of the consumers by introducing various measures like ensuring a proper supply chain, publishing price bulletins, and market inspections to curb practices like hoarding, which is the cause of steep inflation in many countries. The last few years also saw a major push in the promotion of local products and achieving self-sustainability in many sectors.
In their regular weekly meeting on Monday, Shura Council praised the government’s policies to address inflation by implementing measures that contributed to reducing the impact and made several recommendations to address the issue.
The Shura Council members called on authorities to monitor the prices by intensifying their campaigns, encouraging free competition and preventing monopoly, providing all means of support for the local products and making them available on a bigger scale in the local market as well as encouraging exports and support it to compete abroad.
