The authority to price goods and services will be decentralized to local levels.

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

Representative Tran Khanh Thu ( Hung Yen ) pointed out the inadequacies and overlaps between the current Law on Prices and the Law on Medical Examination and Treatment, especially with public medical services that are not on demand. Regarding technical standards, according to the representative, the current regulations require a service to be approved twice, both for economic and technical standards and for pricing, causing delays and difficulties for localities, especially when ministries and sectors have not yet issued standards for more than 19,000 medical examination and treatment services.

A view of the National Assembly on the afternoon of November 12. Photo: QUANG PHÚC

Representative Tran Khanh Thu pointed out that, according to the Law on Medical Examination and Treatment, provincial People's Councils regulate specific prices, but the current Price Law stipulates that pricing documents issued by state agencies are administrative documents, while documents issued by provincial People's Councils are legal normative documents. According to the representative, this forces localities to submit individual administrative documents to the People's Councils for issuance for each unit, covering thousands of services, leading to significant delays and even untimely completion. If health stations become public service units, they will have to prepare pricing plans and submit them to the competent authorities according to all the prescribed steps.

Based on this reality, Representative Tran Khanh Thu suggested that the drafting committee consider amending the pricing authority to align with the general price of medical services, and add medical examination and treatment services at public medical facilities to the revised appendix. Along with that, the authority to set maximum prices should be given to the Ministry of Health; while other ministries, ministerial-level agencies, and provincial People's Committees should set specific prices according to each level of specialization; and regulations on pricing for emergency transport services should be added to unify price management nationwide, as this is a specialized service but currently lacks pricing guidelines.

Representative Tran Khanh Thu (Hung Yen)

Representative Pham Van Hoa (Dong Thap) expressed concern about regulations on price stabilization and the role of the State in setting service prices. According to the representative, price stabilization in the current market is very necessary and important, especially for essential consumer goods, most of which are priced by private companies based on raw material sources and consumer demand. Representative Pham Van Hoa argued that many goods subject to price stabilization have not been truly "stabilized" in the past.

"The government has just announced a policy to raise wages, but outside the market, prices have already started to increase by 5-10%. So, what solutions will be implemented to stabilize prices of goods that fluctuate so much? The draft law needs to include solutions for this," suggested Representative Pham Van Hoa.

Another issue that concerned and worried Delegate Pham Van Hoa was the draft law assigning the commune level to coordinate with functional agencies of the province to carry out the task of price stabilization. “I don’t understand what exactly will be stabilized when the commune level is assigned this task, given that the specialized teams at the commune level are very weak and understaffed. Therefore, clear regulations are needed on this matter to avoid difficulties in implementation,” Delegate Pham Van Hoa stated.

Representative Pham Van Hoa (Dong Thap)

Regarding items whose prices are set by the State, Representative Pham Van Hoa suggested that there should be a framework in the pricing (maximum price, minimum price) to avoid cases of vested interests.

Representative Thach Phuoc Binh (Vinh Long) noted that, after nearly a year of implementing the 2023 Price Law, along with the issuance of guiding decrees and circulars, many provisions of the law have policy lags, lack flexibility in responding to price fluctuations, and are not truly compatible with specialized laws such as the Competition Law, the Pharmaceutical Law, and the Electricity Law…

According to MP Thach Phuoc Binh, currently, the criteria for determining goods and services subject to state price regulation are still qualitative, mainly based on the degree of impact on socio-economic stability. This makes the inclusion or removal of an item from the list of goods subject to state price regulation lacking scientific basis and consistency.

Representative Thach Phuoc Binh (Vinh Long)

Therefore, Representative Thach Phuoc Binh proposed adding clear quantitative criteria and suggested a more flexible mechanism, allowing the Government to temporarily adjust the list of goods and services whose prices are set by the State for a maximum period of 6 months to stabilize the market.

Currently, price management depends heavily on the quality of information, but in reality, price databases among ministries, sectors, and localities are still fragmented and lack standardization. Therefore, Representative Thach Phuoc Binh proposed that the draft revised law clearly stipulate that the "national price database" must be built according to open data standards and updated weekly.

Minister of Finance Nguyen Van Thang. Photo: QUANG PHUC

In explaining and clarifying some issues of concern to the delegates, Minister of Finance Nguyen Van Thang committed to incorporating and reviewing the principles and basis for valuation to ensure feasibility. The Ministry of Finance will study to concretize as many contents as possible that can be included in the draft law, while any arising issues or changes will be studied and specified in the guidelines.

Regarding the National Assembly's comments on the "List of goods and services whose prices are determined by the State," Minister of Finance Nguyen Van Thang stated that the Ministry of Finance will continue to strengthen decentralization and delegation of authority in pricing. Accordingly, ministries and agencies will only determine prices for goods under central government management, while the rest will be decentralized to provincial People's Committees.

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Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/se-phan-cap-cho-dia-phuong-trong-dinh-gia-hang-hoa-dich-vu-post823085.html