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City prepares five-year plan to stabilise consumer prices
The HCM City Department of Industry and Trade is putting the final touches on a plan to stabilise prices and ensure supply of essential goods until 2015.
The plan, which will be submitted to the municipal People’s Committee for approval soon, gives priority to commodities like rice, sugar, cooking oil, milk, eggs and meat.
Goods listed in the plan will be sold at prices 10 per cent below market prices for at least 30 days in case of unusual price fluctuations.
The plan also aims to stabilise prices and secure supply of other goods considered essential by the Government, including cement, construction steel, liquefied gas, fertiliser, animal feed, salt, transportation fares, pesticides and veterinary medicines.
Selected companies specialising in the production and trade of essential goods will work with the city to plan the production, processing and purchase of these goods so consumers can access them at reasonable prices.
Eligible companies that participate in the plan will be provided with soft loans and compensated for possible losses.
However, participating companies will have to contribute 5 per cent of their after-tax profit to the city’s price stabilisation fund.
They will be helped to develop their distribution networks in the city’s 24 districts.
Quach To Dung, the department deputy director, said besides ensuring the supply of goods, the city needed to have distribution networks strong enough to meet the market demand when there were price fluctuations.
The prices of vegetables, fruits and fresh food at the city markets have increased by 5-20 per cent compared to early this month alongside an increase in the prices of petrol and material inputs, market officials say.
Supermarkets have also reported that several goods suppliers and distributors are set to increase prices beginning next month.
Nguyen Thi Anh Hoa, owner of the Citimart supermarket chain, said suppliers had informed that year-end prices of imported confectionery, beverages, chocolate, milk and canned food would increase by 5 to 7 per cent.
Nguyen Dang Hien, director of the Tan Quang Minh Manufacture and Trading Company, said it would be better that producers increase prices gradually towards the end of the year.
Otherwise, it would be difficult to suddenly increase prices by 10-15 per cent at the year end, Hien said.
vietnamnews
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