More than 30 people have already complained to the Commerce Commission that they have been ripped off by the businesses and the companies are using the GST rise as an excuse to charge higher rates on the products since the 2.5% rise in GST was reported on Friday.

The spokesman for the Commerce Commission, Allanah Kalafatelis has said the majority of the complaints seem to be about prices which rose more than 2.5% in the recent days.

The retailers were allowed to charge anything they wanted to for the goods and services but if they could not give the GST rise as an excuse to the price rise as this would be a breach to the Fair Trading Act.

The Commerce Commission has received many other complaints before the GST rise came in to effect on Friday. The Commerce Commission has cleared that it would not be responsible for any kind of price rise but never the less it would definitely try to keep them down.

The companies or retailers do not have to provide a reason for the price hikes of their products but if they want to give reasons that should be a good reason within the Fair Trading Act.