VINACHEM

At the meeting with Price Steering Board lately, Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue ordered ministries to plan more tightened fiscal and monetary policies to help the government and the PM control inflation rate under 5 percent which the National Assembly targeted.

The Deputy PM said that all ministries and responsible agencies must complete documents relating to price management. Particularly, the Ministry of Industry and Trade must amend decisions issued by the PM about retailed price of electricity. The Ministry of Finance must adjust a government’s decree on the Price Law.

Meanwhile the Ministry of Health must soon issue documents guiding medicine forbidding in accordance with the Forbidding Law.

For the price of essential items such as petroleum, Mr. Hue required the Ministry of Industry and Trade in coordination with the Ministry of Finance to re-assess the tax on export and submit its reports to the government for adjustment of petrol prices as well as work out a road map for the adjustment and reports of its effects on e country’s consumer price index (CPI)

The Ministry of Industry and Trade should instruct petroleum enterprises to control the cost of wastage and to apply advanced technologies. The Ministry should increase information to people and enterprises in ruling petrol prices.

Concerning to the electricity price, the Ministry should guide the Vietnam Electricity Corporation to report costs and selling prices, profit and loss status in order to regulate electricity prices during 2016 as per market’s demand and estimated price for 2017.

The Deputy PM said that the government will tighten control over drug prices because as per statistics, the prices of medicine and medical services increased by 16.03 percent compared to the same period last year; of which drug prices showed a leap of 20. 84 percent compared to 2015 and hiked by 28.26 percent compared to 2014.

Accordingly the Ministry of Finance must liaise with the Ministry of Health to submit a solution for concentrating drug forbidding and a solution for forbidding drug of healthcare insurance programs to reduce drug prices.

The government agreed with the Ministry of Transport not to increase cost of Build-Operate - Transfer construction works and to relax price surge. In addition, the State Bank of Vietnam should work out a monetary policy to control inflation rate fluctuating from 4 to 5 percent in 2016.

Last week the General Statistic Office of Vietnam announced CPI in May increased by 0.54 percent compared to April and leap by 2.28 percent compared to the same period last year. According to the Office, CPI in May climbed to one-month- high within recent five years.

Additionally, prices of 11 groups of commodities went up in May compared to April. So inflation is the most pressure in controlling prices.