New version of the Central Pricing Catalog shrinks by nearly 30%
Highlight the direction of monopoly link price supervision and competitive link price market reform
Our newspaper, Beijing, March 16th reporter Wan Jing reporter learned from the National Development and Reform Commission today that the National Development and Reform Commission has revised the "Central Pricing Catalog" (2015 edition) and will be implemented as of May 1, 2020.
The "Central Pricing Catalog" is a list that regulates the pricing authority and scope of relevant departments of the State Council. Since 2015, the National Development and Reform Commission and relevant departments have continued to promote the market-oriented reform of important commodity and service prices. Compared with the current Central Pricing Catalog, the revised pricing items have been reduced by nearly 30%. The amendments are mainly focused on the following aspects:
Deletion of prices and charges that have been explicitly liberalized or cancelled by the state since 2015, mainly involving railways, civil aviation, ports, postal services, banks and salt, visa services, national sugar and meat trading services, VAT tax control system products and maintenance services , Academic degree certification services, citizenship certification services and other fields.
Highlight the direction of pricing supervision at monopoly links and the market-oriented reform of competitive links. We will unswervingly promote market-oriented reforms in the competitive sector and limit the scope of government pricing to important public utilities, public service and network-type natural monopoly sectors. For example, the price of electricity and natural gas, in accordance with the reform idea of "opening the two ends and controlling the middle", changed the "electricity" project to "transmission and distribution" and the "natural gas" project to "oil and gas pipeline transportation".
Adjust pricing responsibilities based on institutional reform responsibilities. For example, the pricing department of some special drugs and blood has been adjusted according to the responsibilities of institutional reform.
The revision of the "Central Pricing Catalog" fully reflects the significant progress made in pricing reform since 2015. At present, China has formed a market-based price mechanism, with the market-adjusted price ratio exceeding 97%.
The revised "Central Pricing Catalogue" mainly includes 16 items in 7 categories, including power transmission and distribution, oil and gas pipeline transportation, basic transportation, water supply for major water conservancy projects, important postal services, important professional services, special drugs and blood. The government's pricing items to be retained mainly have the following considerations:
Network-type natural monopoly link. It is a common practice in mature market economy countries to implement strict government price and cost supervision on network-type natural monopoly links. This reserved transmission and distribution, oil and gas pipeline transportation, water supply for major water conservancy projects, etc., belong to this category.
Important public utilities and non-profit services. Such pricing items involve basic people's livelihood needs, and are closely related to the interests of the people, such as residential and agricultural electricity, basic postal services, basic services of commercial banks, bank card processing fees, special medicines and blood.
Areas that do not have market-oriented competition conditions for the time being. For individual goods and services that do not yet have the conditions for market-oriented competition during the transition period, government pricing is temporarily retained, and the market-oriented reform direction is further clarified.