The Ministry of Finance (MoF) will set up a taskforce to inspect prices of three goods categories with soaring prices namely gas, milk and steel, said Nguyen Tien Thoa, director of the Price Managing Department.
The move is aimed to find out key factors causing price hikes for the mentioned goods and to work out appropriate solutions, Thoa added.
For steel, the taskforce will conduct inspection at Vietnam Steel Corporation, Thai Nguyen Cast Iron and Steel Company, Vietnam-Australia Steel Company, Dinh Vu Steel Company, and Southern Steel Company.
Regarding gas category, the inspection group will work at Vietnam National Petroleum Corp. (Petrolimex), Dinh Co Gas Company, Sagion Petro Company, and Northern Gas Company.
However, the taskforce is still analyzing statistics to outline a list of milk companies to be surveyed.
Thoa said that a report on the inspection will be completed in early September this year and will be publicly announced.
Any companies with manifestations of monopoly, collusion in pricing and speculation to push up prices will be punished in pursuant to the Competition Law and the Price Ordinance.
The MoF has decided to slash import taxes for 18 goods categories from August 8 as a temporary effort to curb growing price hikes.
The move came after Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung had issued directive ordering relevant ministries, ministerial agencies, provincial authorities and businesses to take urgent measures to stabilize prices of consumer goods.
The government’s move is aimed to cope with fluctuations of prices of input materials including imported petroleum products, fertilizers, steel ingots complicated and unprecedented natural disasters.
Despite efforts by the government, the consumer prices indexes soared 6.19 per cent in the first seven months of this year, up 8.39 per cent on-year. (Vietnam Economic Times, Labour)
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