The city launched the Shanghai Pricing Catalogue (SPC) yesterday,
one day after a similar move in Beijing's, to further regulate the
government's pricing system and let the market have more influence
on prices.
"The catalogue legally supports the market to better allocate
resources and improve Shanghai's investment environment," said Shen
Niandong, chief economist of Shanghai Municipal Price Bureau.
The moves by these two cities are meant to fulfill the pricing law
of the country and meet requirements by the World Trade
Organization toward more transparent and normalized economic
polices.
The governmental pricing system which dominated the planned economy
that China used to adopt has been slashed. More market factors will
be utilized under the new catalogues.
Compared with the Shanghai Price Management Catalogue issued in
1997, the new catalogue has no provisions on 48 different kinds of
products on everything from corporations to drinks, newspapers and
film tickets.
Prices of 96.1 percent of the city's retail volume for social
consuming goods will be set by the market, as will 97.1 percent of
the purchase volume of agricultural goods and by-products and 96.1
percent of the sales volume of production materials.
"It is a milestone step forward since 1992 when prices began to be
less controlled," said Jiang Yaozhong, deputy director of the
Shanghai Development Planning Commission and director of the local
price bureau.
The new catalogue will go into effect on December 1. Beijing's
catalogue will take effect on November 1.
In
Beijing's catalogue, 94.6 percent of the commodities and services
such as landway freights, medical services and tea will be priced
by the market and only 5.4 percent will follow the government
instructed price or the guiding price of the government.
The catalogue also lists seven kinds of commodities and services
that are priced by the government such as fees of compulsory
schooling, household water, gas, heating, rail passenger
transportation, buses and taxis.
(China
Daily October 23, 2002)