Amending the Law on Prices: Promoting decentralization, removing bottlenecks

The latest draft revised Law on Prices developed by the Ministry of Finance proposes strong decentralization to the commune level, cutting down business conditions, creating more favorable conditions for price appraisal enterprises.

Inadequacies from practice

One of the important amendments to the Law on Prices is the authority to stabilize prices. Photo: chinhphu.vn — One of the important amendments to the Law on Prices is the authority to stabilize prices. *Photo: chinhphu.vn*

According to a quick survey by reporters in some wards in Hanoi , many people share the same wish that when problems arise with service prices in the area, there must be an agency directly responsible.

“Environmental sanitation fees have increased, and electricity bills have increased three times over the past two years according to the new calculation method. In many places around apartment buildings in Yen Hoa and Cau Giay wards, the fee for parking motorbikes after 6 p.m. is VND8,000/time, much higher than the regulation, but we cannot petition the government closest to the people,” said Ms. Doan Diep Anh in Yen Hoa ward.

The reason is that, according to the current Law on Prices, wards do not have the right to consider adjusting price stabilization, but cities or districts. Meanwhile, according to the 2-level local government model stipulated in Resolution No. 203/2025/QH15 approved by the National Assembly on June 16, 2025, the operation of district-level administrative units nationwide has ended since July 1, 2025.

This seemingly small story shows a large legal gap in price management at the grassroots level. The 2-level local government model has been and is being implemented to streamline the apparatus and improve administrative efficiency. However, if the Price Law is not amended promptly, many shortcomings will persist, directly affecting people's lives.

More broadly, many legal experts also believe that the promulgation of the 2023 Price Law has created a complete legal framework for price management and operation; continuing to promote the implementation of the Party's policy on the principle of price management according to the market mechanism, with State regulation, especially in the context of international economic integration, aiming to achieve the goals of harmonizing the interests of production enterprises, people and the State, contributing to controlling target inflation, stabilizing the macro economy, sustainable development and green growth.

However, the decentralization of management power is too concentrated at the provincial and municipal levels, and the lack of role of the ward and commune levels has led to a situation of "overload above, passive below", affecting the effectiveness of price coordination.

Enhancing the role of the commune level

The latest draft Law on amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Prices, developed by the Ministry of Finance, focuses on amending and supplementing price stabilization; the list of goods and services priced by the State; specialized price inspection, inspection of compliance with the law on prices, and price appraisal.

Listening to the opinions of the people - the subjects that are first and most deeply affected by the price policy, the Ministry of Finance (the law drafting agency) has proposed to the Government to amend Article 32 of Decree No. 125/2025/ND-CP dated June 11, 2025 of the Government to transfer the responsibility of organizing the implementation of price stabilization from the People's Committee at the district level as prescribed in Point b, Clause 2, Article 20 of the Law on Prices to the People's Committee at the commune level, along with reasonable, controlled delegations of authority and a clear coordination mechanism.

The draft also amends and supplements the List of goods and services whose prices are determined by the State. Notably, the authority to determine prices for natural gas transportation services by pipeline and services of storing, re-melting, transporting and distributing liquefied natural gas for electricity production is assigned to the People's Committees at the provincial level.

At the same time, the Ministry of Finance proposed to add infrastructure services in industrial parks and economic zones invested from state budget capital to the list of State-priced services, with the decision-making authority belonging to the provincial People's Committee.

In addition, the scope of application for public products and services is clarified to be services using budget from regular expenditure sources, in order to synchronize with the law on bidding, ordering and assigning tasks to provide public services. Regulations related to railway infrastructure management and maintenance services are also adjusted to be compatible with the new Railway Law, while the names of competent ministries and branches are also updated to be consistent with the new organizational structure of the Government.

Notably, the Draft also provides solutions to create more favorable conditions for businesses providing valuation services through reducing and simplifying business conditions, such as removing the regulation of "having full civil act capacity" and removing the requirement that "valuation enterprises must be established and registered for valuation service business lines according to the Law on Enterprises" in the 2023 Law on Prices.

The feedback address is clear.

According to Lawyer Le Quang Vung, the draft law has demonstrated a spirit of openness and has been carefully and seriously prepared. Once passed, people will have a clear "address" to report, and the local government will effectively promote its role of "being close to the people".

However, in order for this legal document to truly come into effect, it is necessary to continue reviewing and amending unclear regulations, avoiding the situation of creating loopholes for businesses to avoid obligations. In addition, the draft law needs to be supplemented with regulations on price inspection and price appraisal to prevent monopoly prices or unusually high discounts with pricing activities and price registration of monopoly business units in a number of fields such as passenger transport by technology vehicles, multi-level sales, etc.

From another perspective, the Ministry of Home Affairs proposed to remove the brokerage service under the contract to send Vietnamese workers to work abroad from the List of the Law on Prices, because in reality, this brokerage fee is paid by Vietnamese enterprises to organizations and individuals in the country receiving the workers. In particular, the cost often fluctuates according to the market, making it difficult to apply a fixed pricing mechanism.

Regarding compulsory drug addiction treatment services, Ms. Tran Thi Lieu, Deputy Director of the Department of Planning and Finance, Ministry of Health, said that the current price regulation system lacks consistency between the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of National Defense, People's Committees and People's Councils at the provincial level in issuing documents on pricing of medical examination and treatment services.

Therefore, Ms. Tran Thi Lieu proposed to regulate according to the general principle, in which the Ministry of Health issues the maximum price, Ministries such as the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of National Defense decide or delegate specific prices to affiliated units, and the Provincial People's Committee decides the price for public facilities in the area. At the same time, the price regulations in the Law on Medical Examination and Treatment need to be amended synchronously to be consistent with the draft Law.

Source: https://hanoimoi.vn/sua-doi-luat-gia-day-manh-phan-cap-thao-go-cac-diem-nghen-716322.html