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Ministry keeps an eye on prices (12/01)
06/08/2010 - 16 Lượt xem
The Ministry of Finance’s price-control department said the goods included petrol, cement, building steel, clean water for industrial production and services, fertiliser, sugar, rice, animal feed, coal, paper, postal and telecom services, gas and salt.
The new price controls, which were introduced last month, will be kept in place throughout the year.
Distributors and producers can still set their own prices, but they must register them with the State three to seven days before charging customers.
The rule applies to groups, corporations, joint stock companies and limited companies where the State owns more than 50 per cent of capital.
Nguyen Tien Thoa, director of the price-control department, said offices would only accept new rates when they were reasonable and would not affect the stability of prices on the domestic market.
Last year, State enterprises had many business difficulties because the price of raw materials increased following the world economic crisis. This forced consumers to tighten their belts.
Petrol prices fluctuated dramatically on world and local markets. The price increased from VND13,000 per litre to VND19,000 in July due to the higher cost of oil. The price then fell several times to the present VND11,000 per litre.
Last September, petrol distributors and producers were authorised to set their own prices based on import charges, tax rates and other costs – but just to make a reasonable profit.
Due to changes in the cost of world pig iron the price of locally made building steel climbed in the first half of the year to a high of between VND16-17 million (US$914-$916) per tonne, but in the second half, it fell to VND11-13 million ($628-$742).
Due to the sharp decline, domestic steel producers asked the State to reduce or exclude steel ingots from import tax to reduce their losses. The price of many other essential goods, including rice and fertiliser, also increased in early of the year, but later dropped.
Source: VNS
