VietNamNet Bridge – As inflationary pressure is mounting, the Ministry of Finance has ordered the finance authorities nationwide to impose price controls on essential goods whose runaway prices have kept rising to exorbitant levels.

In an official letter sent to the provincial finance departments on Wednesday afternoon, the ministry urges increased checks on price registrations and quotations for key items such as foods, medicines, dairy goods, construction steel, building materials, cooking gas, fertilizer and animal feed.

The finance regulators must coordinate with other relevant state agencies to enforce the ministry’s Circular 122/TT-BTC to ward off any attempts to irrationally hike prices, says the letter.

They will have to prepare a list of producers that are required to publicly register product prices and pass it to the provincial governments, according to the ministry. Urgent measures should be taken to stabilize prices.

The provincial governments will have to immediately set up inspection teams to monitor the organizations compelled to openly quote prices and sell goods at registered prices, as well as to head off attempts to bypass the pricing regulations by imposing extra charges.

All individuals and organizations found to commit violations must be publicized in local media as a warning to consumers, says the letter.

In addition to price controls, the finance and industry-trade departments will need to join hands to balance supply and demand, especially of foods and foodstuffs, which make up around 40% of a basket of items used to calculate the consumer price index.

Plans should be drawn up to use part of provincial budgets and reserve funds to guarantee price stability between now and the Lunar New Year holiday, or Tet, in February – a period of time that traditionally sees consumer prices picking up.

The ministry says in the letter that its price management department would be sending a number of teams to the country’s northern, central and southern regions to inspect price control and stabilization.

In HCMC, leadership on Tuesday told businesses joining a price stabilization campaign to sell goods at officially registered prices and refrain from raising prices under any circumstances.

City vice chairwoman Nguyen Thi Hong, speaking at a meeting with 14 enterprises to review five months of implementing the campaign, stressed no participating firms could revise up prices until the end of the first quarter next year.

The companies should have goods stockpiling schemes so that they can promptly cope with any undersupply that might happen at a time of uncertainty.

The 14 companies – which have taken out low-interest loans to join the price stabilization drive – should open more retail points, take price controlled goods to wet markets, industrial parks and places where workers and low-income people live, Hong said.

Price controlled items are around 10% cheaper than those on the market.

In particular, the city Department of Industry and Trade will coordinate with district authorities to set up stores to especially sell eight price controlled goods.

There are traders who have recently scrambled for large quantities of sugar and cooking oil whose prices are subsidized and then sold them outside for a profit, causing severe shortages of these goods. 

The city government has tasked the market monitoring force to prevent such speculation.

VietNamNet/SGT