HCM CITY — A team of city officials will oversee prices of eight essential items until the end of March next year, according to HCM City's People's Committee.
The team will work with relevant authorities to check the supply capacity of manufacturers; distribution system; number of selling points for the essential items; volume of essential items on the market; food safety and hygiene; and prices and labels.
The eight essential items include rice, meat, poultry, egg, sugar, cooking oil, processing food and fruit and vegetables.
The city will expand the distribution system of the goods to serve a larger majority of consumers.
City officials have asked 14 businesses that participate in the programme to increase their supply capacity by at least 20-30 per cent to meet demand, and relevant departments and sectors to work with industrial parks and export processing zones to create favourable conditions for these businesses to implement the programme.
The city plans to build shops that sell only eight essential goods in rural areas and at industrial parks and export processing zones.
In addition, wholesale and retail shops in the city centre and outlying districts will be set up to sell the eight essential items.
City authorities said more signs that read "Place that sells stabilised-price items" must be installed.
The Department of Industry and Trade said it would penalise or fine any business that violates programme regulations.
Meanwhile, more than a fourth of the outlets participating in HCM City's price stabilisation programme have been shut down for violating the agreement.
Fourteen manufacturers and distributors signed up for the programme – and got soft loans – and they and their agents opened 1,983 outlets where all prices are to be displayed and no unauthorised price hikes may be made.
But 562 of them have been caught flouting one or more of the rules and ejected from the programme, according to the HCM City Department of Industry and Trade.
Speaking at a meeting organised to review the programme last Thursday, Le Ngoc Dao, deputy director of the city department of Industry and Trade said it had proved effective in stabilising the market, stamping out speculation, and keeping the consumer price index down.
But with each participating company having hundreds of outlets, she admitted. "It is hard for enterprises to avoid shortcomings in management."
The department had ordered market management authorities to step up inspections of the outlets to check violations and is determined to close down violators, Dao said.
It had reported to the People's Committee about the closed outlets and posted their names on its website to inform consumers.
"Consumers discovering any difference between listed and selling prices can report to authorised agencies," she said.
The prices of many essential goods would be likely to be very volatile until year-end, she warned, referring to the market outside the programme.
Some markets and supermarkets have recently increased the prices of imported cosmetics, beverages, and other consumer goods by 5-10 per cent.
Prices of sugar, rice, vegetables and fruits have also increased sharply in recent days.
From November, around 56 seafood items including shrimp, fish, frozen cuttlefish and dried shrimp and fish wouldbe sold through supermarkets and price-stabilisation outlets, Dao said.
By the end of this month, some businesses and distributors would start selling these products at supermarkets and stabilised-price selling points 10 per cent below the market price.
Other city departments will be required to monitor prices of items not on the essential-items list, according to Nguyen Thi Hong, deputy chairwoman of the city People's Committee. — VNS
