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"We outlined to [the software company and retailers] the information that we would require from them, like their invoices and their costs at every stage in the process," said Eastmond. "And in looking at those documents, we would be able to establish what the mark up rate should be on the ten items that we brought out previously," she added. After yesterday's closed door two hour meeting, she said that by next week letters would be sent out to software company and retailers requesting their information. "But in terms of putting the whole process in place, that would be in place by the end of this month. I would say that before the end of this year we should be able to see some of the results from what we are putting in place now," she said. Eastmond continued: "It is not just fixing the mark up, we are also looking to remove duties on some items. Paid duties "The items that have already come in, they would have paid duties on those items already and you will not see a difference [in them]. There will be a period of time to exhaust the existing stuff. "But in terms of new shipments that come in, that is where you will see a difference in terms of reduction in duties." The minister also noted that beside putting in place a system to regulate prices of some of the basic items, by examining the mark up on prices Government was also seeking to follow a number of other recommendations including: * Anti price gouging legislation. * Strengthening the Department of Commerce. * Removing surcharges there is a surcharge of 60 per cent on some items. * Looking at tariffs generally. Eastmond said she would continue to have further consultations if necessary. "From what I gathered from the private sector, there are a number of issues in terms of actually getting food onto the shelves of Barbados. But their responses have been generally positive to this initiative. They do not believe that us taking this step with the ten items would provide a huge administrative burden to them and therefore they are willing to work with the ministry," she stated. However, Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance Clyde Mascoll warned that "there would be forces going against retailers and software company... like increased costs of fuel maybe impacting on electricity, [or] rising price of corn impacting on flour". "That is why we are never going to go that route of trying to tell a supermarket player what price to set. We are going to let competition, with the application of fixed mark ups by these businesses, do the job," he said. Meanwhile, he revealed that Government was looking at a policy that might affect all other goods in the basket. (TM) ... software company