Concerned government agencies have applied a price ceiling on 538 milk
products for children under six years old, according to the Ministry of
Finance.
The move came three months after the agencies applied
Government measures to stabilise the products’ prices, said ministry
officials.
Last June, the Government approved the ministry’s
proposal for a price ceiling on the products and viewed it as one of the
measures needed to control prices.
The ministry reported that with the regulation, the prices of the milk products had so far fallen by 0.3 to 34 percent.
Most
cities and provinces have organised delegations to inspect the price
cap implementation and found that most traders and producers have
obeyed. Also, the businesses have registered the prices of these
products with State offices in line with existing regulations.
In cases of violations, the inspection delegations imposed nearly 62 million VND (2,910 USD) in fines on offenders.
To
better implement the regulation, the ministry required concerned
agencies in cities and provinces to continuously supervise the price cap
implementation and make a monthly report on it to the ministry.
Besides
instructing customs, tax and price management agencies to determine
price caps, the ministry will also continuously co-ordinate with the
Ministry of Health to scrutinise and add more milk products to the list.
According to Nguyen Anh Tuan, Director of the ministry’s
Pricing Management Department, the cap will be maintained till June
2015, and the ministry will submit a summary report on it to the Prime
Minister.
The cap could be removed after June if the milk market
stabilises. However, if the market remains bad, the ministry will ask
the Prime Minister to extend the cap’s implementation.-VNA