Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc underscored that the government will not use any administrative measures to intervene in the socialist-oriented market economy, but prices were a key factor. However, the government required businesses to manage production so that good quality products can be sold at reasonable prices. Input supplies were needed to be maintained in order to stabilise prices. With the retail price of petrol, the prime minister required continuance of the policies outlined in Decree 83. The oil and gas companies should carefully control expenses and use the Price Stabilisation Fund so that the domestic price of petrol does not rise too high. The prime minister also suggested that Electricity Vietnam not raise electricity prices for the foreseeable future.
"Electricity prices won’t increase this year and there won’t be any price stabilisation fund for electricity. The wholesale price of electricity can increase, but not the retail price", said Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc.
The prime minister also stated that low price of the healthcare service should not be maintained as low charges meant poor quality services. However, the increase in the price of the healthcare services should follow a road map and should not coincide with increases in education costs. The government will allow tenders for medicine as part of efforts to reduce the costs of treatment for patients.
"We should have an appropriate move in term of adjusting healthcare service prices. The Ministry of Health should be aware of the situations in each province and discuss with the Ministry of Finance to build a road map for increasing healthcare services price so that it doesn’t increase in all 63 provinces and cities at the same time", said Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc.
As the country will face the shortage of 200,000 tonnes of sugar due to sugar cane crop failure, the PM has decided to allow import of 100 thousand tonnes of sugar from now until the end of the year. The PM also agreed to purchase 200,000 tonnes of salt for temporary storage to stabilise the price of salt. This was nearly double the current price.
The PM also decided to maintain price control measures on milk for children under 6 years old until the fourth quarter of this year. But the government would address the issue again at the end of the year.
Concerning road toll collection at the BOT projects, the PM reiterated the government's view to not allow increased charges. The Ministry of Transport is assigned to complete the report to the PM about the issues including total investment capital and the payback period for BOT traffic projects.
