On the occasion of the repeal of the Law for the Defense of People in Access to Goods and Services (2010) and the Law of Fair Costs and Prices (2011), which orders the suppression of the Institute for the Defense of People in access to goods and services (INDEPABIS) and the Superintendency of Costs and Fair Prices, it is necessary to update the contents published by the subscriber.
In effect, in 2014 the Organic Law of Fair Prices (LOPJ) was approved, the purpose of which is to ensure the harmonious, fair, equitable, productive and sovereign development of the national economy, through the determination of the prices of goods and services, through cost analysis, profit margin setting and commercial activity inspection.
To this end, all goods and services required to develop matters related to the management of both individuals and the public sector are declared of public utility in terms of the production, manufacture, import, collection, transport, distribution and marketing of goods and services..
Its scope of application is throughout the national territory.
The recipients of the normative text are the public as well as the private sphere. We must not forget the fact that the national government, in all its forms, has actively intervened in the economic phenomenon, so much so that procedures have been carried out where the official sector nationalized or nationalized food companies, industries, among others. Similarly, with regard to micro-finance and communal matters, provided for by the Law for the Promotion and Development of the Popular Economy, Organic Law on Communal Councils (2009), it has been seeking a more active role within the financial movement., from a private law perspective.
For its part, the municipality is assigned powers in matters of food, markets, slaughterhouses, among others, so it is of interest to know the law in reference. The Organic Law of Municipal Public Power (LOPPM) (2009) assigns jurisdiction to the local level in matters of supply and markets, also over slaughterhouses. This should be construed as concurrent competition.
However, as time passed, modifications were made, both to the distribution system and to the legislation that regulates them. Hence, institutes of national rank have been known that deal or have dealt with the matter, such is the case of the Ministries of People's Power for Agriculture and Lands, Food, Ministry of People's Power for Commerce, Ministry of the Popular Power for Industries, Venezuelan Agrarian Corporation, National Land Institute, among others.
This to mention a few.
For the execution of the matters to which the LOPJ contracts, a decentralized body called the National Superintendency for the Defense of Socio-Economic Rights (SUNDEE) is created; among its competences are to exercise the stewardship, supervision and control in matters of study, analysis, control and regulation of costs and determination of profit margins and prices.
One of the aspects where SUNDEE intervenes is the setting of the lease fees for commercial premises, attributed by the Decree with the rank, value and force of the Law for the Regulation of Real Estate Leasing for commercial use (2014), in which the competence possessed by the municipalities to make the rental fixation based on the Decree with rank, value and force of the Law of Urban Real Estate Leases (1999) is modified.
Based on the principle of institutional cooperation to which the Organic Law of Public Administration (2008) is contracted, it sets the tone for bodies as well as for entities to support the Superintendency in its powers.
The municipality should pay attention in this regard.
