Law on Prices (revised) adopted, regulations on ceiling prices for domestic air services remain

	Removing obstacles in petroleum management
	Strongly reform administrative procedure stipulated in draft Law on Prices (amended)
	The State only intervenes to regulate and manage in specific conditions

The National Assembly deputies votes to pass the Law on Prices (revised). Photo: Quochoi.vn

With 92.91% of the participants voting in favor, the National Assembly passed the Law on Prices (revised) in the afternoon meeting of June 19 at the 5th session of the XV National Assembly.

The Law on Prices (revised) was adopted, including 8 Chapters and 75 Articles stipulating the rights and obligations of organizations and individuals trading goods and services and consumers in the field of price; tasks and powers of state management agencies in charge of price and price appraisal; price management and regulation by the State; synthetic, analysis and prediction of market prices, database on prices; valuation; specialized inspection of prices, examination of the observance of the law on prices, appraisal of prices; and enforcement terms.

According to the assessment, the adopted Law on Prices (revised) has many new points to overcome some limitations and shortcomings of the current law. For example, the Law on Prices (revised) stipulates: Price stabilization is the implementation of solutions and measures by a competent state agency in accordance with this Law in order to stabilize the prices of goods and services upon the abnormal price movements over a certain period of time.

The Law on Prices (revised) also adds regulations on the valuation certificate, which is a document issued by the price appraisal enterprise or the branch of the price appraisal enterprise after the end of the valuation activity to notify customers, related organizations and individuals (if any) which are recorded in the price appraisal contract about the value of the appraised property and the main contents of the valuation report.

The Law on Prices (revised) also amends and supplements prohibited acts in the field of price and price assessment, such as: spreading news, reporting untrue, inaccurate information about the socio-economic situation causing disturbances in market information and prices of goods and services; abusing a state of emergency, incident, disaster, natural disaster, fire or epidemic to increase the selling price of goods or services that are not suitable for price fluctuations in the normal conditions for profiteering.

The Law on Prices (revised) has given specific regulations on price declaration, listing, and reference. Accordingly, ministries, ministerial-level agencies and provincial-level People's Committees shall stipulate the technical and economic characteristics of goods and services to declare prices.

Presenting a report explaining, absorbing and revising the draft Law on Price (revised), Member of the National Assembly Standing Committee, Chairman of the National Assembly's Finance and Budget Committee Le Quang Manh said, the Bill of Law on Price (revised) was discussed at two sessions, the National Assembly’s Standing Committee directed the Finance and Budget Committee to coordinate with the drafting agency (Ministry of Finance), the Standing Agency of the Law Committee and relevant agencies, to urgently study, absorb and fully explain all opinions and complete the draft. So far, all National Assembly deputies agree with the explanation and revision plan.

Explaining more about some controversial issues, about the proposal to add "milk for the elderly" and "pork" to the Goods and services subject to price stabilization, according to the National Assembly's Finance and Budget Committee Le Quang Manh, Standing Committee of the National Assembly said that these two items are not yet necessary to be put into the list of price stabilization.

As for the price of domestic air passenger transport services, the majority of opinions agree with the Government's proposal that the State set the maximum price (the ceiling price) to ensure the people's interests.

In this regard, the Standing Committee of the National Assembly found that, in the current context, when the aviation market is no longer competitive, to ensure the initiative rights of airlines and still protect the interests of people, the State still needs to keep the ceiling price regulation for domestic air passenger transport services as a tool for state management of prices to ensure the State's responsibility in stabilizing the market, maintaining healthy competition and promote socio-economic development.

Therefore, on the basis of the actual context, it is necessary to carefully study different opinions, based on the principle of majority decision. The Law on Price (revised) has kept the provisions ceiling price for passenger transport services by domestic air.

Revising Law on Prices: Avoiding overlaps between specialized laws

However, for textbooks, the Standing Committee of the National Assembly proposed to only set a ceiling price, but set a floor price for textbooks in the Draft Law. The reason is that textbooks are an essential commodity, with a very large consumer base and a very wide range of influence, the price of this item directly affects the majority of people, including low-income people. Therefore, the regulation of only a ceiling price, but a floor price for textbooks is to stabilize the market, create healthy competition, and protect the interests of consumers.