It states that public hearings should be held when pricing authorities at all levels decide or readjust prices of goods and services essential to daily life.

"The public's say in the process is useful in improving pricing transparency," said the regulation by the State Development Planning Commission (SDPC).

All pricing authorities should actively accept hearing applications, organize the time and place of the hearing and take the public's comments into consideration before making a decision, the regulation states.

Entrusted by the Central Government, SDPC and its branches at the provincial, prefecture and county level are authorized to supervise pricing.

The new regulation is the latest move in a string of pricing reform initiatives launched by the State to make its economy more market-orientated.

The government was responsible for setting prices of all goods and services during the years of the planned economy. But now most commodities and services are priced by the market; the main mission of pricing authorities is to supervise the pricing, not decide what to charge.

The regulation stipulates that an expert committee should be established under pricing authorities to examine the government's pricing process and make the final cost decision or readjust the costs of articles still under the macro control of the government. The committee would have 30 days to do so and to make it public via mass media.

SDPC has worked hard on the price reform.

It recently announced a regulation requiring public hearings to be held when some departments decide the prices of water, electricity and natural gas.

Last week, SDPC made public two regulations to crack down on price cheating and encourage the public's involvement in reporting pricing irregularities.

(China Daily December 24, 2001)