National Assembly Delegate: Can gold be included in price stabilization items?

Delegate Pham Van Hoa - Photo: GIA HAN

On the afternoon of November 12, the National Assembly discussed the draft Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Prices.

Gold prices fluctuate unsteadily, affecting the prices of consumer goods.

Presenting his opinion at the meeting, delegate Pham Van Hoa ( Dong Thap ) presented a bill assigning the People's Committee at the commune level to implement price stabilization .

However, delegate Hoa wondered how the commune level could implement price stabilization when specialized staff at this level were "very weak and lacking".

From there, he proposed to have specific and clear regulations on the responsibilities and powers of the People's Committees at the commune level in implementing price stabilization, and to coordinate with provincial-level sectors to perform this task.

Referring to the appendix of the list of price-stabilizing goods, Mr. Pham Van Hoa said that it is necessary to consider adding price-stabilizing goods.

"For example, can gold be included in the list of price-stabilizing goods?" Mr. Hoa said. Gold is not an essential commodity for people's needs, but people consider gold very important.

He added that recently, the unstable price of gold has also affected the price of consumer goods.

However, Mr. Hoa admitted that stabilizing gold prices is difficult, because domestic gold prices are affected by world gold prices.

"But the world gold price and domestic gold price are quite different," said a delegate from Dong Thap, suggesting that this issue should be considered very clearly and specifically.

Minister of Finance Nguyen Van Thang - Photo: GIA HAN

The list of price-stabilized goods has not been adjusted yet.

Explaining later, Minister of Finance Nguyen Van Thang mentioned transferring the responsibility of the district-level People's Committee to the commune-level in performing operations related to price stabilization.

He said, according to the decentralization mechanism for localities in the Law on Prices, the assignment and guidance of commune-level People's Committees to implement specific tasks is proactively coordinated by the provincial-level People's Committees with relevant departments and branches, in accordance with the actual local situation.

The Minister stated that in the current Law on Prices and in Decree 85/2024, the Government has detailed the procedures for implementing price stabilization at the local level.

In particular, the department managing the industry and sector is responsible for stabilizing prices in the locality, assessing the actual average market price developments of goods and services, and sending documents to the Department of Finance to submit to the Provincial People's Committee for consideration and decision on policies, measures, and price stabilization period.

Currently, according to the provisions of the Law on Prices, the People's Committees of the provinces have issued decisions on price management assignment in the area.

Accordingly, assign specific coordination tasks to specialized agencies and lower-level administrative agencies to perform state management tasks on prices at the local level.

However, accepting the opinions of the delegates, Minister Thang said that he will continue to research and review how to decentralize, delegate power, and coordinate between functional agencies.

In particular, when implementing the 2-level local government model, to ensure the implementation of decentralization, responsibility for commune level related to price stabilization activities must be feasible in the coming time.

Regarding the review and completion of the list of price-stabilized goods and services, the minister said that during the process of drafting the 2023 Price Law, he closely coordinated with the National Assembly's agencies to review, evaluate, and adjust the list of items that are no longer suitable, as well as add a number of essential items to the list.

He added that in the process of summarizing the 2023 Price Law, it was found that there are currently no changes to the list. Therefore, it is proposed not to adjust the list of price-stabilized goods.

Proposal to supplement regulations on pricing of emergency transportation services

Previously, delegate Tran Khanh Thu (Hung Yen) mentioned that recently there have been many complaints related to rampant emergency transportation prices.

Based on that reality, she proposed to consider adding regulations on pricing for emergency transportation services. Because there are currently no regulations guiding pricing and price management for this service.

"This is a special service but is currently not included in the list of medical examination and treatment services. It is also not a regular transportation service. Therefore, it is recommended that there should be unified guidelines," Ms. Thu suggested.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/national-representative-co-the-dua-vang-vao-mat-hang-binh-on-gia-khong-20251112151849971.htm#isreadmore=1