A landmark public hearing on the price of rail transport is
scheduled to take place in Beijing on Saturday.
Thirty-three people have been invited to air their views over the
Ministry of Railways' application to change ticket prices.
The 33 include railway experts and National People's Congress
delegates. Twelve are consumer representatives from different
regions.
The hearing will be the first organized by the State Development
Planning Commission, the country's pricing regulator authorized by
the central government.
Wang Yang, vice-minister of the commission, said: "We have made
ample preparations for the hearing."
But Wang refused to go into details over the ministry's 150-page
application, which consists of 10 related documents on cost
accounting, financial reports and other issues.
"I
don't want to reveal the ministry's applied price-float range
before the hearing takes place," Wang told more than 100
journalists at a press conference yesterday. He later told China
Daily that the representatives had begun studying the ministry's
documents.
The 33 representatives are expected to sound out grass-roots public
opinion, Wang said.
But he played down people's expectations over the hearing by
stressing that the representatives had only been authorized by the
Price Law to collectively decide whether "the applied float scope
is high or low."
He
explained: "They are not authorized to decide on the range, which
is the business of selected experts and pricing regulators."
Li
Dekun, head of the commission's Pricing Department, said the
hearing was expected to set an example for provincial-level
governments on how to preside over such events.
Li's commission recently issued a circular calling on monopoly
industries, such as telecommunications and transport, to conduct
public hearings before changing their prices. The circular said the
opinions of consumers and experts must be taken into account.
The Ministry of Railways drew widespread public criticism last year
when it unilaterally raised passengers' ticket prices during Spring
Festival last January.
Qiao Zhanxiang, a lawyer from Hebei Province, even brought the
ministry to court for failing to comply with the Price Law.
Qiao lost the case in a first-instance verdict but he has lodged an
appeal. The case is being heard at Beijing Intermediate People's
Court.
Li
said: "The present hearing is not related to the case."
But Wang said the case had helped the government accelerate the
establishment of procedures for public hearings.
Following the commission's circular, transport departments across
the country have held or are expected to hold public hearings
before changing ticket prices for the upcoming Spring Festival, a
traditional time for family reunions.
The Ministry of Railways did not officially comment on the hearing
but sources with the ministry confirmed it plans to increase ticket
prices.
(China Daily January 7,
2002)