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On this newscast, we always knock the Bureau of Standards for being too soft on enforcement, but they've been busy doing their work these past six weeks. The Bureau reports that its officers have visited 150 stores all over the country to check on the new controlled price of rice and sugar – which went into effect at the end of December, 2015.

So, of the 150 stores which they checked, 30 of them were price gouging. This was most prevalent in the south and at corner shops in rural areas countrywide. And where prices were higher than the controlled price, the Bureau confiscated their product, taking in 2770 pounds of rice, white sugar, brown sugar and flour. A third of that came from stores in Belize City, while Punta Gorda and Dangriga had half of the total, Cayo had only 10%, and Orange Walk and Corozal added up to only 8% of the total product seized.

And that's not the end of it. The controller of Supplies has the case files and he will send if to the DPP for advice.

If you have a store you'd like to report for price gouging, you can call the Bureau of Standards at 822-2665 .